Morning Skate: Questionable Hits, Kids at Work and Oranges for Sale

The Richards hit was crap and he should have been sent out for 10+ games. His angle of attack was such that the only thing he could have hit was Booth’s head. That’s what he can control, and he chose poorly. Of course, this is the NHL and somehow this kind of thing is looked upon as okay.

At least when two guys square up to fight it’s by mutual consent. This is a drive-by mugging.

Ta,

I understand why Richards didn’t get penalized, but not suspended. This kind of hit, much like the one on Drury a couple of years ago that encited that infamous brawl at HSBC with Ottawa, is technically not illegal the way I see it. However, it is completely dirty and dangerous and should be illegal. The way a player like this skates out of the vision of a player even with his head up is completely dirty. He swipes in front of the player so he only catches his head and takes him off his feet. Completely out of the spirit of the game.
I find it hard to feel sorry for Tucker or even sympathetic. The guy has long been one of the dirtiest players in the league and he’s hit so many players this way in his career that it’s hard for me not to say that he had it coming. That may be callous but that’s the way I feel about it. With that being said, Ruutu should know better than to hit a player from behind and he deserves the suspension.

The NHL got this right, well, actually the refs blew the call, but we will ignore that and just discuss the lack of suspension…

First of all, he didnt even take a step after the puck was passed, meaning, it wasn’t late… not even remotely late, it only looks maybe late when you watch it in super slow motion, at regular speed, which by the way is how games are played and reffed, it does not appear to be late at all. Kaletta consistently hits people much later than this (and is rarely ever called for it)… Second, Richards didn’t lift up at all, not one bit his shoulder would have collided with booth’s shoulder had Booth not turned his head at the last moment. There was no jumping off the skates after the hit like plenty of cheap shot artists like to do.

It is unfortunate but in no way was this a bad play with intent to injure. Not even close. I am sad to see people looking at this hit as though it was a head shot, it wasn’t. Booth had his head down and turned it into Richards shoulder. The fact that he got a major for this is incredibly lame as it is basically the NHL punishing the result of a valid play, not the result of the rules saying this sort of thing is a bad play. It wasn’t a bad play, it was an unfortunate accident. Had this play not resulted in an injury nobody would give it a second thought.

Don’t get me wrong, I do NOT like seeing people take cheap shots at other players AT ALL, but this wasn’t one of those times, it just happens to be two star players over a weekend of incidents that seems to be bringing this to the forefront of media’s attention. Well, that and the fact that Booth had to be taken off on a stretcher. Luckily Booth seems to be doing better, and hopefully he will be back soon, but a bad hit? Nope. Something the NHL should try and stop? Nope.

All that being said, the NHL is lame about giving out suspensions… 3 games for the Jarko Ruttu hit? Three games??? If they want to stop these sorts of things in the long run try suspending a player for something more like 10 games, maybe more. Second offense? Gone for the season. Third? Sorry, no more NHL for you. I promise you that will bring a stop to the cheap shots… but I have my doubts about the NHL actually wanting them to be out of the game. Big hits, cheap or not, sell tickets.