How the hell does that work? That's the worst hit I've seen all season, and he doesn't even get suspended.

It is impossible to prove whether he wanted to hurt the guy or knew that doing that move would put him into the turnbuckle.

It is the worst result from a hit this season but not the worst hit.

Keep in mind I cant stand the Bruins after their last fluffshow against the Canadians so I was happy as hell that Montreal beat them and if I thought it was a provable offense then sure I would say throw the book at him....but to me its not

I think its safe to assume that he knew where he was on the ice and knew he was coming up on that post/pole/whatever its called. Not only is he an all-star who should have good ice awareness, but he was looking that direction, too.

Watching the video again... Pacioretty pushed the puck ahead and had a clear advantage over Chara. Being a hockey player I can tell you Chara definitely leaned into and pushed into him trying to slow him down and cut him off into the boards. However, it's hard to say if he knew where he was putting Pacioretty. Anywhere else on the ice and that would have been a safe play, and a good play. Chara is a big man, but I don't recall him ever being blatantly dirty.

Yeah, I actually liked Chara before I saw that hit. But Pacioretty passed the puck up ice a few seconds before he was hit, so there was no reason to hit him. Anywhere else on the ice, and a hit that late would be a boarding penalty.

Yes it was a penalty but it would have been more of a rubbing out elsewhere...although with chara its never quite that simple due to size :P

It is safe to assume that it is very possible he knew where he was and where he was pushing him but you can't say it was for sure. What if it was an accident as is entirely possible and he just wanted to put him into the boards hard like the rest of bostons goons :P

Thats why I feel its impossible to call really.

Are you guys serious? That warrants ten games, minimum. Brutal.

ya, it looks like he tried to "rub him out" into the edge of the box there

that's pretty horrible.

The Bruins weren't very happy when it happened to one of their guys, that's for sure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd8cDxL_5IE

Look how much Neely dropped off after that. He had been one of the top wingers in hockey. His one good year after the hit came with Adam Oates as his center, and everyone who ever played with Oates had their best year as his linemate (Hull, Bondra, etc).

Edit: DOH! Quoted, meant to edit

http://www.hockeydb.com/...ats/pdisplay.php?pid=3930

wasn't violence the point of this game?

Can you prove he did it on purpose knowing what part of the ice he was on? This isn't the same as "you are expected to control your stick" imo anyways. The issue is proving anything.

Locket - Normally just seeing your name annoys me, reading your posts is another story, but damn if we havent always shared hockey opinions.

I Love Chara, I hate Brian Murray.

Had the hab taken 2 more strides before Chara hit him we would not even be discussing it. It was a bad case of 'wrong place wrong time'. As locket said. Prove Chara MEANT to hurt him. Did Chara feel bad? Maybe...not much though.

And dont forget lads, Chara throwing a standard hit means the weight distribution hits people different. Rather than a mid-section to mid-section hit, Chara has no choice but to mid-section to shoulders hit. It's hard being 13 feet tall.

you guys and your damned hockey :P

Honestly though, Chara has made alot rougher hits with alot less recoil.

Chara is one of my favorite players and i still think if the sens hadnt got rid of him we would have a decent team still.

fluff the habs anyway, its a team that gets upset when over 60%of the team isnt french.

definitely interference but otherwise a clean hit, that hit is made tons of times throughout a NHL season.. obviously an unfortunate and terrible injury resulted from this particular hit, but no suspension/fine is the right call based on track record and this 'flow of the game' impact..

in unrelated news, fluff the habs.. bunch of whiney divers (with Tuesday's game being an exception, they played well).. see you back in Boston

go B's

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/could+probed+police/4415669/story.html

lol @ Canada

lol @ America for lol'ing @ Canada, while being the most litigious country on the planet :p
IS YOUR COFFEE TOO HOT? MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T DRINK IT WHILE DRIVING THEN, EH?
HOW CAN OJ BE INNOCENT OF MURDER, BUT FINANCIALLY LIABLE FOR THE DEATHS?? :p

I hate the habs, but that's just fluffty to do to another player regardless of who you're cheering for. Sports are meant to be played competitively but not result in major injuries -- especially when they're directly caused by the actions of another player.

Chara was a POS when he was in Ottawa, he's a POS in Boston too. It would be funny when there is a Canada-wide warrant for Chara, and he can no longer come here to play Hockey games :p

I'm not applauding the injury. I think it was vicious and unfortunate and honestly pretty unsettling to watch.

I just think its funny that after the NHL ruled that the hit was within the rules, Montreal police are going to try and bring charges against him? And now Air Canada might drop their sponsorshipp?

A serious and unfortunate injury for sure, wouldn't wish that on anyone.. but this is laughable!

Chara did nothing wrong but play hockey.

Welcome to the sport.

mmm

playing a game does not make you above the laws of the place you play it in. there's no rule against fighting, but they sure got the police involved when Todd Bertuzzi clocked that Colorado player and ended his career.

also, bring charges? I'm not sure if your ignorance of Canada extends to the language as well, but investigating an issue != bringing charges. Is that what it means in the states? I guess that makes sense with your legal system :p

the things that are happening right now are things that happen all the time in lots of countries in a variety of sports... you just seem like a biased, ignorant Boston fan :p
You better not like the Patriots.

did bertuzzi do anything wrong when he attacked steve moore? welcome to the sport! :p

the issue that I have here is that it is now OK to check people into the end of the glass on the benches. is that part of hockey? I don't think it's meant to be... that's incredibly dangerous.

when any player leaves the game from a pool of his own blood with a spinal injury, it's scary as fluff and something that should most certainly be addressed by the league better than "he didn't break any rules"

In what world does an admitted brutal attack on another player like what bertuzzi did, remotely compare to this situation?

chara tried to rub him out on the boards and UNFORTUNATELY it turned out bad. Thats the sport. Bad things happen sometimes unintentionally. Bertuzzi Attack on Moore was just that, an Attack.

Your telling me in the footage you watched displayed Chara attacking in such a way? With full intent on throwing another players head into the glass?

Everyone that has spoke of Chara has been remarking him as a fluff cat. yeah hes 13 foot tall but hes been more of a player and less of a goon for years now.

yes, it looked like he saw the glass there and pushed the montreal player in such a way that pinching him would definitely crash him into the side of the glass. I fully expect the "investigation" to go nowhere, but it is one of those situations where someone is so seriously injured you pretty much need to investigate it, if not only for due diligence for your fans/constituency/etc.

that glass shouldn't be like that in the first place though
montreal is dumb... hate the bell center

definitely a pats fan.


Sure i'm biased, but anywhere else on the ice, that play results in a 2 minute minor for interference and there's no discussion. I didn't like seeing someone get hurt that bad.. I don't like how he's going to be sidelined for at least the rest of this year. But its not Chara's cross to bear.

He's playing within the rules, i just find it outrageous that the montreal police are probing an INVESTIGATION (my mistake) after the NHL cleared Chara of any misdoings.

And keep your personal opinion of Chara out of it, talk about bias.. he has served ONE suspension (i think it was for 2 games) in his decade+ long career for an instigating penalty.

He's not a cheap player and was rightfully dismissed of any action from the NHL

we can agree on that at least

Given the timing of the hit, at the perfect time to push his head into the pole, and that the contact was unnecessary as the puck had been cleared a few seconds earlier, and that Chara's teammate was clearly going to get to the puck before Pacioretty, and that Chara was looking in the direction of the pole and skating towards it, and that Chara has the ice awareness to know where hs is on the ice, but most of all, that Chara has a history with Pacioretty and wanted to hurt him, then yes, I do think that intent can be proven.

The timing of the hit is what is worst about it. He timed it perfectly to injure, and did so intentionally.

I respected Chara before this, and Chara has never been suspended before. But even without a history of dirty plays, I still cannot see this hit as being accidentally timed perfectly against the player on Montreal he hates most at the time it will cause the most severe injury.

I don't think Chara had conscious intent, I think it was more of a reflexive move, which he would still be liable for. I think that when skating towards the pole, he saw a chance to cause injury and took advantage of it. He had maybe a second or so to see Pacioretty skating right towards the pole. I don't think that ahead of the game he decided that he would try to send someone headfirst into that pole, but I do think that he saw an opportunity and took advantage of it.

I would liken it to Haynesworth's move against Andre Gurode in the NFL a few years ago. It was not premeditated, but it was an instinctual action of seeing an opportunity to hurt someone and taking advantage of it without thinking it through. The Kyle Turley incident in the NFL is another example of an incident where a player saw an opportunity to hurt an opposing player and did so without premeditation or thinking their actions through. And I think Turley was a hero in that case, and should not have been punished at all. We need a Kyle Turley to hurt Chara now.

When your instinct is to cause serious harm to another person, that is a very bad thing. And that is what Chara's instinct was here.

Yeah i dont think anyone would argue that

But its because of where they were on the ice that there is a discussion. Chara wasn't skating around with his eyes closed, he knew where he was on the ice, and waited for the right moment to strike.

If I shoot a gun and the bullet hits someone, I don't argue that if I was pointing the gun in any other direction that I wouldn't be charged with murder. The direction the gun was pointing does matter. And similarly, where they were on the ice does matter because Chara was perfectly aware of where he & Pacioretty both were.

And you guys are trying to tell me that in the split few seconds the thought ran through Chara's head that if he hits the guy right, and righth at this exact moment i can tee his head up for that nice chunk of glass there?

Im sorry but no. Chara isnt that type of player and history shows that by HUNDREDS of clean hits and even more CLEAN fights.

Yeah hes a bruiser but i stand by this being an unfortunate act in Hockey and nothing else. It was bad timing for a hit yes but in no sense do i think it was intentional or concious for that matter.

Yes, that is exactly what I am saying.

oh it's not montreal doing it -- it's the province.

I gotta disagree with Chara being the poster boy for good, clean players though; he's a damn good defensemen, but whenever I see him play, there's always a couple of calls (or missed calls) where he's trying to take things too far, usually using his giant stick to interfere with people. He's also big on picking on small guys, which actually could be more of a coaching thing than anything else.

I think the main issue here is intent, and I don't know how you couldn't know that giant box is going to be a problem to "rub someone out" into. Chara was looking right at it while skating toward it and he was sitting beside it on the bench all game.

I've always been a fan of having the player who caused an injury serve a suspension the same length as the player's injury in obvious cases (the Savard concussion is one I'm sure will hit home with Boston fans :p). I absolutely hate all injuries, and that was exacerbated this year when my hockey pool team had: Mark Streit, Evgeni Malkin, Steve Downie, Ryan Malone, Jonathon Toews, Ryan Getzlaf, Craig Anderson, Alex Steen, Christian Erhoff, Alexander Edler, Kevin Bieksa, Joni Pikanen, Jussi Jokinen, and probably a few more I'm forgetting.
They were all injured for at least a while this year. Most had to be replaced :(
I'm not sure how I'm still winning the pool at this point :p

ya if you have the ability to see a puck and make a play on it within a split second, you're going to tell me that he can't use that same skill to know where the walls for rink are? :p

I disagree about players serving suspensions as long as the injury they cause. There's different types of plays that should be punished. Pre-medidated actions are the worst. There's spur of the moment actions like Chara's. And there's also reckless play, which Ovechkin is the posterchild for. And lastly, there's unfortunate dangerous play, where someone is not being reckless, but in the natural course of the game, their action ends up being dangerous. That is what the NHL claims Chara's action was. And lastly there's unfortunate plays that aren't even dangerous, but cause freak injuries. Taylor Hall's injury is one of those.

Obviously, the guy Taylor Hall fought (Dorsett I think) shouldn't be suspended for the rest of the season because of Hall's injury.

But Chara's was a spur of the moment intent to injure act, in which case his suspension should be quite lengthy.

Hall's Big lips aside, I dont see it.


This is Chara we are talking about not Avery. When Neil in an interview says your mild, that sayys something.

And im not saying hes a poster child for good but lets be honest hes not the poster child for bad either and the accusations people are throwing around i think are a bit harsh.

I see a player trying to rub another out on the boards, a common thing in hockey. Then i see an unfortunate injury happen. Myself its as clean cut as that. No more no less

well im sticking with my boston bias, no one is changing anyone's mind here.

I'll be at the Garden on the 24th though, that should be fun.

I'm a Blues fan... completely unbiased to this.

I still say it's impossible to prove he meant to do this. Also still say that in my history of watching Chara play, I never thought he played dirty. (see. Cooke, Avery)

Let them do an investigation on that matter, we all know nothing is going to happen :S

1) To quote Pang -- Chara was a POS when he was in Ottawa, he's a POS in Boston too. It would be funny when there is a Canada-wide warrant for Chara, and he can no longer come here to play Hockey games :p

--- This statement is not only untrue, but it is ridiculously biased from a silly leafs fan. Go back T-Town you blue and white clown!!!!!!! Go Sens!

*edit* - While the above statement to pang is a joke, I would like to make it clear that all leafs fans are indeed clowns. I have more appropriate names but they are not AT friendly ;-)


2) Gallandy, you're in Ottawa too?

3) I've seen the video over and over. Chara absolutly meant to dump him. Chara was throwing a full force rub and probably did intend to injure. They don't like each other, it happens. Did Chara mean for his head to bounce off the glass? No. Did Chara wish ill-will while delivering his hit? Yes. The hit was the same hit any player would make in the same situation. The glass being split right at the exact spot was an unfortunate circumstance. If you believe otherwise then you truely have not played competetive hockey.

I'm going to be at ScotiaBank place on April 2nd cheering the Leafs into the playoffs :p

Enjoy the first overall pick though! :)

second overall :(

Die in a brush fire

And no im not in Ottawa, im in London ontario. Just a hop skip and a jump away :P

blah blah blah...

What is icing?

When someone from team A sends the puck from before the center red line to the team B red line at the net. If the puck does not touch anyone in between (or look like it was intended to) it is a stop in play. The result is a faceoff in the Team A zone.

not only that, but the team which ices the puck can't change its players without using a timeout

that's big for a lot of late-game situations! :p

"I believe he was trying to guide my head into the turnbuckle. We all know where the turnbuckle is. It wasn't a head shot like a lot of head shots we see but I do feel he targeted my head into the turnbuckle." - Max Pacioretty

"If you polled 700 NHL players, 680 would say he knows exactly what he's doing and knows the turnbuckle is there."
"I thought it was a dirty play. I thought he knew exactly what he was doing." - Vancouver Canucks winger Tanner Glass

"that part of the rink in Montreal, where the benches are, I'd like to think that everybody, unless it's their first game there on the first shift - they might not be 100 percent aware of it - but having played against Montreal a bunch with Boston and with Buffalo ... you're pretty familiar with the ice," - Sabres Defenseman Steve Montador.


So Mr. Charcoal, have those guys not played competitive hockey?

He should get beheaded.

Ive played hockey, ive had grudges with people, i've hit someone with the intent of causing a little stinger to keep the person off for a few shifts or at most 1 game.

Chara plays hockey, he had a grudge with pacioretty, he's hit someone before with the intent of causing a little stinger to keep the person off for a few shifts or at most 1 game.

Difference? Hes making millions and is a top elite defensemen in the NHL.

I do believe Chara wanted to shake up Pacioretty, and maybe keep him out for a shift or two. I do believe he knew very damn well who he was hitting, even though he is denying it. Hell I know very well when that frenchy Doucet, who I asked if he had a yeast infection once because he was whining like a b****, is on the ice or not.

Anyways, I've sent a person to the doctors with a broken ankle before, and yes I intended to hurt that person, but not to that extent... I still feel guilt for it. I do believe the NHL should of given a suspension, regardless, im sure deep down Chara feels guilty for his act, and it will stay printed on his mind next time he intends to hit someone with the intent of hurting him for a few shifts.

Yes, im a Habs fan =p

Rockman - Yeah, I'v never been to the Bell center, and i know exactly where it is too. But when you're in that zone, you dont see the edges the doors etc.

Chara saw white boards and a red enemy. He put them together. He did not purposely slam the guys face off the edge like people are implying. Again, if you think he did, well...im glad you're not the commissioner.

Speaking of which, while in general the NHL is very lax when it comes to suspensions, this was a big enough injury to make an example, yet the disciplinary crew unanimously agreed to ignore it. This is not Crosby, the NHL SAVIOR! this is Chara.



Hardy - I totally agree, you do intend to hurt people, not injure, end a career or anything, but the purpose is to get into their brain.