2013-14 NHL Season: "We Are North American Scum"

[RedRenesis]

The fact that Neal didn't turn around or give any indication that he had hit something, leads me to the opposite conclusion.

Deadspin has a clip of the whole thing

http://deadspin.com/brooks-orpik-carted-off-after-shawn-thornton-punches-hi-1478810642

[Brass]

The fact that Neal didn't turn around or give any indication that he had hit something, leads me to the opposite conclusion.

Deadspin has a clip of the whole thing

http://deadspin.com/brooks-orpik-carted-off-after-shawn-thornton-punches-hi-1478810642

Agreed and at least to me, looks like he's sticking his left leg out a bit.

[maz]

I press the theory that he might've expected Marchand to move, but I digress. No matter the situation there is no justification for jumping someone like you're in a back alley. Neal got his with the penalty. Orpik didn't deserve what he got (his hit was clean).

[TorinK92]

This franchise is truly snake-bitten. Nothing ever works out for this team. They can never catch a break. I hate sports. Sports are never fun.

+1

[The_Admiral]

Well, why aren't we talking more about kneeing a guy in the head? That's pretty bad too. Geez, you Eastern teams are like a bunch of barbarians.

Just want to revisit myself here. I mean, I bitch about the Blues all the time, but really, what do they do? Fight sometimes? Big deal. In Western Conference play, the only time things go DEFCON seems to be when Raffi Torres and his busload of children are involved. In the East, you can't go two weeks without someone attempting murder or a game just devolving into monkeys throwing poo. It's really strange.

[TorinK92]

I feel like I'm always the one breaking up these topics, but these are two stats that shows just how bad Ottawa is this year.

1: 0/10.

2: 2/10

1: That's our record on shootout attempts this season, 0-4 on the season.

2: That's how many shots we've stopped in the shootout as well. Outscored 8-0 in four shootouts has to be a rare feat, especially when you work hard / collapse embarrassingly to get into the shootout.

*long exasperated sigh*

[-kj]

That knee does look intentional and nasty.

The Orpik hit, though, looks clean. Not a hit to the head. Not leading with the elbow. Just a good, clean, hard hit.

I'm so sick and tired of players who hit someone hard being expected to fight--or getting suckered later. There is no excuse for what Thornton did. That's not "a little scrum"; that's pulling down someone from behind who has no idea you're coming, then punching him over and over while he's down. There's nothing that can justify it, and it's a bit disgusting to play it off as "oh, other stuff was happening in the game".

[CS85]

[The_Admiral]

Agreed completely. And you guys know I'm diametrically opposed to the "suspend him a million games!" hyperbole that abounds these days, but slew-footing a guy from behind and then punching him in the head is something that needs to be punished severely -- very severely. This is in the highest (or lowest) stratum of dishonorable "plays," right there with Simon on Ruutu, Hunter on Turgeon, McSorley on Brashear, and Bertuzzi on Moore. Thornton could have done serious damage to the head on this. But he's otherwise classy? I guess he amassed his 873 penalty minutes in 522 games with dignity and refinement. Don't come around here no more.

EDIT: oh and hey there's a video where it "wasn't his intention" to stick his leg out, trip a guy from behind, and repeatedly punch him in the head after the back of his head bounced off the ice with no chance to brace his fall. You dickweed.

[ninersdd]

Here's a good microcosm of the West vs East.

The New York teams are 29-53-8, while the California teams are 58-19-14.

The Penguins always seem to get involved with wars with other teams, like the Islanders in 2011, the Flyers in 2012, and now there appears to be another feud brewing with the Bruins.

[Cosmic]

Agreed completely. And you guys know I'm diametrically opposed to the "suspend him a million games!" hyperbole that abounds these days, but slew-footing a guy from behind and then punching him in the head is something that needs to be punished severely -- very severely.

I think there's two very different categories of suspendable things: one where you're still playing hockey, and one where you've left the game of hockey completely. Most of the time, I think hits that get suspensions are just stupid, negligent or lazy mistakes, not malicious acts. Trying to get a guy off the puck, and maybe you don't think a move ahead and realize that his head is going to go into the boards like that. Something like this Thornton thing, though, has nothing to do with hockey. There was no quick reaction required; everyone was standing around, and then he jumped Orpik. Maybe I would even give him a little sympathy if he just turned Orpik around, then Orpik fell and got hurt... when you're on top of a guy punching him half a second after he's down, I think it's pretty clear what you intended to do. I'm pretty sure everyone knows that hockey fights (if we can call this one) stop when a guy goes to the ice.

Here's a good microcosm of the West vs East.

The New York teams are 29-53-8, while the California teams are 58-19-14.

The Penguins always seem to get involved with wars with other teams, like the Islanders in 2011, the Flyers in 2012, and now there appears to be another feud brewing with the Bruins.

Yeah, but take the Sabres out and New York would be 28-2-6.

[maz]

After having a night to let things cool off, all I can say is I'm glad the Pens and Bruins don't meet again all season. It was fun to play them at first, but now it's getting to Flyers levels of anger and frustration every time, especially when the Pens dominate the whole game but get burned on two semi-lucky breaks at the end (except I'll at least give the Bruins credit for actually being good and creating those chances).

Looks like you've got a brand new rivalry between two of your top teams, NHL. Just what you've always wanted.

[FGM13]

My thoughts on the Pens-Bruins debacle:

-Orpik's hit was beautiful and clean, but it was just simply hard enough to knock Eriksson out of the game.

-Thornton's initial decision to fight Orpik was good, as he was sticking up for Eriksson. Orpik's decision not to fight was fine by me, he didn't want any part of Thornton.

-The Neal knee-on-head was one of the dirtiest plays I'd seen in a while(until Thornton on Orpik). While I don't think he was hellbent on kneeing Marchand, he had the chance to get out if the way, but he made no such effort and let his knee whack him in the head.

-Thornton on Orpik was despicable. Thornton's right, you can't apologies enough, that was a dirty play, on par with Simon-Ruutu, McSorely-Brashear. etc.

[RedRenesis]

-Thornton's initial decision to fight Orpik was good, as he was sticking up for Eriksson. Orpik's decision not to fight was fine by me, he didn't want any part of Thornton.

The only thing I'll say here, because I've heard it said on both the NESN broadcast and a couple of other places about Orpik's decision not to fight, Orpik is against fighting in the NHL and thinks it should be banned.

[The_Admiral]

Welp, Crawford just blew out his groin on a mundane play. Good thing he's just a mediocre goaltender or whatever STL Fanatic said or we'd be in one dilly of a a pickle.

[Funky Bunky]

Maybe you guys should've kept the guy who got the Vezina vote.

[TorinK92]

So now Neimi's my only fantasy goalie right now? great...

I actually can't tell if that's sincere, he's probably the streakiest goalies in the league playing on the streakiest team (although I still hope that Ottawa will be given that title within a couple of weeks.

[-kj]

Welp, Crawford just blew out his groin on a mundane play. Good thing he's just a mediocre goaltender or whatever STL Fanatic said or we'd be in one dilly of a a pickle.

Isn't this the same board where Hawks fans used to lambaste Crawford on a regular basis?

[Funky Bunky]

Welp, Crawford just blew out his groin on a mundane play. Good thing he's just a mediocre goaltender or whatever STL Fanatic said or we'd be in one dilly of a a pickle.

Isn't this the same board where Hawks fans used to lambaste Crawford on a regular basis?

That was before he was a Stanley Cup™ Champion, of course.

[maz]

-Thornton's initial decision to fight Orpik was good, as he was sticking up for Eriksson. Orpik's decision not to fight was fine by me, he didn't want any part of Thornton.

The only thing I'll say here, because I've heard it said on both the NESN broadcast and a couple of other places about Orpik's decision not to fight, Orpik is against fighting in the NHL and thinks it should be banned.

The whole thing about "having to fight" after making a hit is bull . Spontaneous bouts in the heat of the moment are okay, IMO, but when you have to potentially get your ass beat and sit yourself out for five minutes, or get jumped from behind after the whistle, because you made a good play ten minutes ago, that is where the line must be drawn.

And to address any "typical homer bull :censored:" people out there - Neal's knee was dirty. Filthy. A crime of inaction is not as bad as seeking someone out to smite them, but something like what he did has no place in any sport. I'd like to think the Penguins are above that kind of crap. Last night was a disappointment in many ways.