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P. Marlowe

Ryan Miller's opinion on Milan Lucic

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Agree with your post 100%, so far I have hardly been a fan of Shanahan. Looking forward to the remaining buffalo boston match ups to see if anything transpires, however knowing how soft buffalo is i doubt it

We know Thomas isn't afraid to scrap. Miller may need to back his mouth up. Like I've said, Buffalo is pretty soft outside of Mr. McCormick.

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So the latest conspiracy is that Lucic intended to take Miller out..

I've seen goalies hit behind the net countless times when playing the puck. If they get bowled over, in my opinion it's their fault, the rules often disagree with me here, but still, I don't think you quite understand what any levels of intent are.

I will first will say I never said it was intent to injure all I did was ask the question. I will openly say I don't think he went to Injure Miller, but was his intent to take Miller (a non eligible player to be hit) out of the play with a hit, yes for sure. I understand what your saying about goalies behind the net. My biggest thing with that is I feel if a goalie is putting there body in between the opposing player and the puck then yes there is a good chance he is going to get hit cause he is using his body to shield the puck. This play had no where near the same situation. Miller skated out to the puck and dumbed it away. Never used his body to shield the puck and got rid of the puck right away.

First is the situation behind the play. They were going for the puck. Lucic braced himself and made the hit. The only reason this is even a penalty is because contact occurred and Lucic made no effort whatsoever to get out of the way.

I will disagree with one thing, bracing your self for contact and making a hit are two different things. If Lucic braced him self for contact and incidental collision that couldn't be avoided and he protected him self to avoid injury because of the collision with Miller thats one thing. Its the fact that he did what he could to flatten him. He never tried avoiding him, didn't try to protect him self or Miller. He went for the hit and thats clear as day. You don't consider it protecting your self for an "incidental" collision by turning it into a hit to plow over the other player in a vulnerable position.

Second, intent to injure, might wanna re-watch the Flames/Wings series in the 2004 playoffs of Ville Niemenen skating into the crease and elbowing Curtis Joseph in the head. That is an intent to injure. This hit with Lucic on Miller.. give me an effing break.

Once again I never said it was intent to injure but I will say that there was definitely intent to hit a player that wasn't eligible to be hit and he was hurt because of it. I asked the question if it isn't labeled under "Intent to injure" then what is it. Charging yes thats what it was called, but charging a player with out the puck, especially one that can not be hit. My problem with the play is the point of hitting is to separate the player and the puck, and erase him from the play (basically legalizing a hit a second or two after release of the puck). The problem with this play is Miller did not have the puck and he isn't Legally allowed to be hit. So looking at the intent rule, what other Intent could Lucic have besides getting a shot in on Miller. He had his chance to get a blow in on Miller and took it. So what other intent could he have besides the Intent to take a run at a player that isn't even legal to hit?

I like a good debate Shoreline so hope this doesn't come off snarky or anything like that...

Edited by Crashnburnluder

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lol.. what? If you can suggest that Lucic intended to hit him therefore it's an intent to injure then that infers every hit is an intent to injure if the hit results in an injury. That sounds quite ridiculous. "Kronwalled" is synonymous with "Intent to injure", sorry Kronner.

An intent to injure penalty cannot 100% without error be called because sometimes the intent isn't as obvious. An intent to injure penalty is one of the more major penalties in the game someone can get, so there had better be some pretty damn clear indication that was intended if one is going to be assessed this penalty and the suspension that inevitably would result. This was not the case even remotely with Lucic. He did intend to hit Miller simply because of the technicality of a charging penalty whereby it states that if he doesn't make any reasonable attempt not to hit the goalie outside the crease it's charging.

It is not only Shanny that saw it that way, it was the officials who were officiating the game, who actually got a call right for a change. Lucic was not smiling like hur hur I made a hit on a goalie /trollface, he had Sabres players in his face and was smiling because every single hit of any sort these days needs a stupid ass reaction by teammates. I would laugh too at those idiots.

Haha you don't actually read anything, do you? Quit picking a sentence and applying your own foolish context so that it fits your argument loosely, and address the conversation as a whole. Like I said previously, this does not apply and should not apply to deciding if a clean hit receives a penalty. And to continue to compare this to a skater on skater incident is the most ridiculous thing in this thread. This is intending, and doing a damn good job of achieving a hard open-ice hit on a goaltender without the puck.

By your argument, the Bertuzzi-Moore incident (since apparently we're just making whatever wacky, unrelated, irrelevant references we can since we don't have any hard precedents, right) was a roughing penalty and nothing more, because hey, he got penalized right? And he didn't mean to crumple him like a piece of paper. Sure he meant to hit him, but come on, would he mean to do that? And then all the Avs jumped in on him and Moore, he couldn't control that. That was all just a misunderstanding, he should have served his two and been back out there.

"That's good tough hockey, just like any other hit! Quit being a wimp. There was no intent to injure, therefore he is fine hitting a protected, unhittable player who just so happens to be the most important to the opposition's season. And if he is injured and misses a few games, that's not my fault, I didn't intend for it." - Shoreline (since you did such a good job at putting words in my mouth :))

As far as I'm concerned, you're probably closer if you're comparing it to a hit on a linesman then you are a skater on skater hit. :P

Edited by b.shanafan14

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You realize there is a provision in the charging rule allowing for supplementary discipline, right? You keep saying it was a charging penalty as if that means it shouldn't have been a suspension.

You're right that you can't prove intent. However, you can infer intent by looking at the actions and the likely result. A hard hit on someone in a vulnerable position is reasonbly likely to cause injury, therefore it is reasonable to infer that intentionally hitting (hard) a vulnerable player is intent to injure.

Regardless of what you or others think of the rule, the fact is goalies are not fair game. That means we can reasonably assume Miller did not feel (and should not have had) any need to protect himself from a hit. In my opinion, because goalies have that protection and therefore do not expect to be hit like that, goalies should always be considered vulnerable. So in my opinion, any hard, intentional hit on a goalie should be considered intent to injure and warrant a suspension.

I understand that it is subjective and not everyone will subscribe to the same logic. However, remember that a lack of 'proof' of intent is not proof of no intent. Also remember that this is a hockey league, not a court of law. We're not talking about sending someone to jail. We don't need to meet so strict a burden of proof.

This was a chance for the league to prove they are willing to suspend a star player (besides Pronger) as well as deter future actions they obviously do not want to see in game (goalies getting hit). In my opnion, Shanny missed on this one.

Exactly.

And in several instances where Shanny has handed out punishment, he made clear that while he doesn't think there was necessarily intent to injure, the play was so reckless that it in essence counts as intent. I'm pretty sure this was the case with Smith's hit. And an intent to injure penalty does not have to be called at the time for Shanahan to consider it in his ruling.

So Lucic didn't have to consciously be thinking "I want to hurt Miller while I have the chance." What he did was hit a player who was not eligible to be hit, which is a reckless play, and hardly surprising that Miller was hurt.

To be honest I don't know that it even warranted a suspension. I think it deserved a fine. But for Lucic to get no punishment shows that Shanahan is using a much different standard than he was early on. An illegal hit by a player who has been suspended in the past resulted in another player getting a concussion. Yet there was nothing more than a 2 minute penalty. That's surprising.

Edited by haroldsnepsts

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I'm just catching up with this mess. Great thread and good opinions/ideas/thoughts on both sides of this.

My take:

1. Lucic is dirty douchebag.

2. Lucic could've/should've avoided hit...no way he could've played the puck without contact with Miller.

3. While intent to injure is not provable, his douchebag grin after the play showed he hit Miller on purpose.

4. Sabres need to grow some balls. Talk is cheap, but I would've take a 4 game suspension if I'd been on the ice after my goalie was run like that. I would've speared Lucic's junk.

5. Shanahan totally dropped the ball, I'm disappointed.

I'd still like to see:

1. What Boston fans think about the hits (though I can guess)

2. Lucic get some karma payback sometime this season...don't care from whom.

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TSN.ca

"I think Buffalo's comments are irresponsible to suggest that it's open season," Shanahan said at the Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremony. "I will have this warning for players: `It's not. If you run a goalie you're going to find yourself in the same situation that Lucic was today, you're going to have to explain yourself and you don't explain it sufficiently, and if I don't buy it, you're going to be suspended."'

(...)

Ultimately, he thinks a rule change will need to be made before he can suspend every player that collides with a goaltender.

"If they feel, as (Sabres GM Darcy Regier) suggests, that goalies are like quarterbacks and that their needs to be a higher standard in supplemental discipline (I'm open to that)," said Shanahan. "I'm not a policy-maker, but I'm a policy enforcer. If these guys want that I'm happy to enforce that policy.

"But I don't think that I can just go and do this because this happened to a great goaltender like Ryan Miller."

(...)

"I think the job is always going to be grey," said Shanahan. "It's not black and white because people have their own perspective. You could line up 100 Hall of Famers in this room and watch that (Lucic) hit and they could be 60-40 or 50-50 on what the decision should be. Fans will do that too. ... I feel that in the bigger picture we are changing player culture. Each and every specific decision will be dissected, good or bad.

"If I suspended Lucic I'm sure there would be a lot of people that thought it was the wrong decision, but I think the greater point in all of this is I see that players are reacting and responding."

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Guest Shoreline

Haha you don't actually read anything, do you? Quit picking a sentence and applying your own foolish context so that it fits your argument loosely, and address the conversation as a whole. Like I said previously, this does not apply and should not apply to deciding if a clean hit receives a penalty. And to continue to compare this to a skater on skater incident is the most ridiculous thing in this thread. This is intending, and doing a damn good job of achieving a hard open-ice hit on a goaltender without the puck.

By your argument, the Bertuzzi-Moore incident (since apparently we're just making whatever wacky, unrelated, irrelevant references we can since we don't have any hard precedents, right) was a roughing penalty and nothing more, because hey, he got penalized right? And he didn't mean to crumple him like a piece of paper. Sure he meant to hit him, but come on, would he mean to do that? And then all the Avs jumped in on him and Moore, he couldn't control that. That was all just a misunderstanding, he should have served his two and been back out there.

"That's good tough hockey, just like any other hit! Quit being a wimp. There was no intent to injure, therefore he is fine hitting a protected, unhittable player who just so happens to be the most important to the opposition's season. And if he is injured and misses a few games, that's not my fault, I didn't intend for it." - Shoreline (since you did such a good job at putting words in my mouth :))

As far as I'm concerned, you're probably closer if you're comparing it to a hit on a linesman then you are a skater on skater hit. :P

Amongst straw men, I don't think I've seen such a retarded attempt at parodying a rather sincere opinion. The discussion you are replying to had to do with intent. It was obvious as day Bert had the intent of injuring a guy by following him around the ice hitting him in the back of the head, which somehow compares to this incident. I'm only awaiting your trifecta of stupid with an invocation of Godwin's law. :hysterical:

Let me try a b.shanahan14 analogy.

Lucic almost KILLED Miller! He should be sued worse than the fake lawsuit against Chara and the po-po should "charge" his ass in return! Overreaction über alles!

Edited by Shoreline

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if a goalie leaves his crease he should be fair game. if he's playing the puck, he is effectively a 3rd dman and should be subject to a good crunch now and again. been saying for years if goalies leave the net you should be able to hit them. i say add more hitting to the game instead of whining about every hit thrown and crying suspension.

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if a goalie leaves his crease he should be fair game. if he's playing the puck, he is effectively a 3rd dman and should be subject to a good crunch now and again. been saying for years if goalies leave the net you should be able to hit them. i say add more hitting to the game instead of whining about every hit thrown and crying suspension.

That's your opinion, which is fine, but the NHL currently disagrees with you and so do I. You can't make the goalies fair game because they are not equiped to absorb the body contact like any other player. It's not because they are wussies or anything like that, it's because of their equipment. They are much more prone to injury through body contact than anyone else....hence the rule. I have no problem at all with the rule, I'm just wondering if they want to consider no allowing goalies to leave their crease to play the puck. Not sure about that though as the limitations recently put on them as to when they can play the puck haven't been overwhelmingly positive.

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Guest Shoreline

That's your opinion, which is fine, but the NHL currently disagrees with you and so do I. You can't make the goalies fair game because they are not equiped to absorb the body contact like any other player. It's not because they are wussies or anything like that, it's because of their equipment. They are much more prone to injury through body contact than anyone else....hence the rule. I have no problem at all with the rule, I'm just wondering if they want to consider no allowing goalies to leave their crease to play the puck. Not sure about that though as the limitations recently put on them as to when they can play the puck haven't been overwhelmingly positive.

I'm sure he's aware that the NHL rules disagrees with him, but I do believe that the forum rules still allows for someone to debate if they think Miller should be fair game anyways despite the NHL's rules.

The trapezoid rule is just stupid, and, understandably, no goalie is going to like having any sort of strict limitations placed on where they can stand/move, although it makes it interesting adding this type of rule if they have to leave the crease area for an extra skater and then double back, say, on a turnover. That just seems like a mess in the making.

I would certainly be in favour of tearing up this ridiculous non-"fair game" rule the NHL implements. If a goalie wants to not protect the goal, and wants to make a play on the puck well away from his net, it should be his right to play the puck, and it should be his right to be hit like any other skater playing the puck.

It really sucks that Miller is going to be gone but I hope next time he thinks twice about going that far away from his crease to play the puck.

I also hate this:

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=380513

Saying he felt fine after the hit, Miller continued playing through the end of the second period when he began experiencing tightness in his neck and fatigue. Backup Jhonas Enroth took over at the start of the third period.

The 2010 Vezina Trophy winner did stick around following the game to speak to the media, during which he called Lucic "gutless."

Miller revealed that he and the team went ahead with announcing he had a concussion in a bid to make a case that Lucic should be suspended.

The fact that he continued to play, then has issues, and suddenly comes out announcing the concussion with the intention of trying to sway the league into suspending Lucic, makes me shake my head in disgust.

Edited by Shoreline

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<snip>

I also hate this:

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=380513

The fact that he continued to play, then has issues, and suddenly comes out announcing the concussion with the intention of trying to sway the league into suspending Lucic, makes me shake my head in disgust.

Why?

The league is pretty clear about factoring injury into doling out punishment. If I'm a goalie and someone intentionally runs me like Lucic did and gives me a concussion, I'm sure not going to sit on that information when they're deciding what to do. It's not like Miller was faking it.

And that's on the Sabres team and medical staff for not catching the concussion or making him sit in the quiet room. Every player wants to play. What was he supposed to do when his neck tightened up and he felt weirdly fatigued?

From your link:

"I think he said what he had to say to avoid being suspended," Miller said, referring to Lucic having a hearing with NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan on Monday. "It's the NHL, man. The guy can skate. He can stop. He can turn. He can pick his head up."

Pausing and then adding with a laugh, Miller said: "If he didn't see me then, I don't even know how that could happen."

In speaking with reporters for the first time since being diagnosed with a concussion and whiplash on Sunday, Miller chose his words carefully during a nine-minute interview after he sat out practice.

Miller provided no timetable for when he might be able to play, saying he's still feeling soreness in his neck and experiencing post-concussion-like symptoms.

Edited by haroldsnepsts

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NHL.com

Boston coach Claude Julien was asked about a possible alteration to the rule about contact with the goaltender or the possibility of limiting a goaltender's ability to move out of his crease.

"There's a difference between a hit and a collision. And that's always going to be a gray area in everybody's minds," Julien said. "Some people are going to call certain things a hit, some people are going call it a collision. I mean, as far as I'm concerned as a coach, I'll abide by any rule they want to put in there. If they say you can't touch him at all, then it's you can't touch him at all. If they keep the rule the way it is, then let's keep the rule the way it is.

(...)

New Jersey netminder Johan Hedberg will be tasked with facing the Bruins tonight. He doesn't think goaltenders have a right to expect special treatment.

"That's what I don't think is right. You have to respect the game in the game, too," he said. "You can't expect the rules to protect you at times. That goes for everybody, including us as goaltenders. Who knows, the guy might be coming in full-blast, he looks away, he doesn't see that you're out there and you've got to make sure that you're ready for it. I think it's part of the game."

Hedberg and Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask both recalled instances where they were in a position like Miller was and got hit. Rask said he understands that sometimes these incidents with contact are unavoidable.

"Everybody knows it. That was just an accident," he said. "Everybody knows that you don't try to take a goalie's head off or anything. Things happen in the game. It's just part of the game and sometimes accidents happen."

As for Buffalo head coach Lindy Ruff's comment that by the League not suspending Milan Lucic it's declaring "fair game" on goaltenders, the Bruins didn't want to engage in much of a war of words.

"No comment on that. They can say whatever they want," Rask said.

Added Julien: "That's just talk. We're certainly not going to get into that. People get frustrated, people talk and you don't hold those kind of things against people like that. They're entitled to their opinion. And you just move along here. We can't react to everything that's being said out there. Everybody has their own opinion, and we're just happy it was dealt with the way it was and we're ready to move on."

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Guest Shoreline

Why?

The league is pretty clear about factoring injury into doling out punishment. If I'm a goalie and someone intentionally runs me like Lucic did and gives me a concussion, I'm sure not going to sit on that information when they're deciding what to do. It's not like Miller was faking it.

And that's on the Sabres team and medical staff for not catching the concussion or making him sit in the quiet room. Every player wants to play. What was he supposed to do when his neck tightened up and he felt weirdly fatigued?

From your link:

If he was so concerned about his health he wouldn't have waited until then to come out with it as if he's tattling to the media about a concussion to try and get Lucic suspended. Throwing a fit like a baby to the media is pretty much on par with his stick swing, and makes me lose some respect for a goalie I had quite a large amount for. He should be above this type of whining.

I do love how, for concussions, unlike every other injury, it's the players who set a timetable for their own return, but doctors are supposedly expected to do something about it? Something isn't right.

Edited by Shoreline

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Burke was on the radio this morning and he actually made a couple good points as to why goalies need to be protected that I didn't previously think about. He did mention their equipment being designed to stop pucks, not absorb body contact (which was my main issue).

- Goalies don't have the ability to skate around the entire ice and deliver hits (i.e. payback later in the game)

- Goalies are not trained, do not practice taking contact on a dailing basis like every other player.

Brian didn't like the hit at all, suggested Lucic did not play the puck and took it as an opportunity to run the goalie. That said, he agree with no suspension based on current rules.

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Burke was on the radio this morning and he actually made a couple good points as to why goalies need to be protected that I didn't previously think about. He did mention their equipment being designed to stop pucks, not absorb body contact (which was my main issue).

- Goalies don't have the ability to skate around the entire ice and deliver hits (i.e. payback later in the game)

- Goalies are not trained, do not practice taking contact on a dailing basis like every other player.

Brian didn't like the hit at all, suggested Lucic did not play the puck and took it as an opportunity to run the goalie. That said, he agree with no suspension based on current rules.

It's a little scary when I find myself agreeing with Burke.

Years ago when the league was still discussing the trapezoid rule, Buccigross wrote a column about it. I emailed him saying I thought the simple solution was just to make goalies fair game outside the crease. Don't want them playing the puck? Then don't go far from home. He actually replied and made several good points similar to Burke's.

Goalies basically have anchors strapped to their legs which makes them a very easy target and at an unfair advantage to players. And that if the rule was that they were fair game, guys like Darcy Tucker (again this was a few years ago) would take every opportunity to crush goalies, which usually leads to all out melees on the ice and would be extremely disruptive to the game. Because even though it would be a legal hit, no team would stand for letting their goalie get run like that (except Buffalo, evidently). I have to agree given how many clean hits lead to fights these days.

Lucic absolutely took the opportunity to run Miller. Like I said before, if Shanny wanted to keep more in line with his earlier rulings, I think this warranted a fine.

If he was so concerned about his health he wouldn't have waited until then to come out with it as if he's tattling to the media about a concussion to try and get Lucic suspended. Throwing a fit like a baby to the media is pretty much on par with his stick swing, and makes me lose some respect for a goalie I had quite a large amount for. He should be above this type of whining.

I do love how, for concussions, unlike every other injury, it's the players who set a timetable for their own return, but doctors are supposedly expected to do something about it? Something isn't right.

Agree to disagree I guess, because you seem to be taking every piece of information about Miller's injury in the worst light. Waited to come out with it? Tattling to the media?

Where do you get that players are setting a timetable for his return? In every player I can think of that's had a major concussion recently, they talk about how they can't even have a full effort workout until the doctor clears them. Then they need to get cleared again for contact in practice.

Edited by haroldsnepsts

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Shanny keeps talking about awareness and the responsibility of the hitter, yet Lucic _deliberately_ makes a reckless play leading to the injury of a goaltender and gets nothing. Is it going to take Boston actually killing someone on the ice before they're penalized?

It's a damned joke.

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