Monday, October 16, 2006
Colby Armstrong: Barely Legal?
There has always been a fine line between a legal hit and an illegal
hit. Scott Stevens straddled that line for so long that he left his
proverbial footprints on both sides of the fence.
It's long been established and is the practiced norm that a player is
fair game for a short time after he has received the puck. Now, normally
this isn't much of a problem since most players know to expect to be hit
just after they get rid of the puck.
Where this question of legality comes into play is a hit like Colby
Armstrong delivered to Trevor Letowski.
Now, the hit always looks worse in slow motion, so pay no heed to that.
In real-time, there is one tick and *BLAM*, Letowski has visions of
dancing pucks in his head and gets knocked so far into next year that
he's been assessed $10,000 for late filing of taxes.
It's clear that Letowski had gotten rid of the puck before he was
nailed, and Armstrong made no attempt to side-step Letowski even though
it was obvious that he no longer had the puck. This was a legal hit and
I don't hear too much bickering about it, but I wonder if the league
would be better off enforcing a standard whereby players get penalized
for hitting a player without the puck, or at least not making any
attempt to move out of the way (ala goaltender interference standards).
In happier moments of hockey lore, my friend Duc took this awesome
videoclip from the Giants/Thunderbirds game on Friday. With the 3-0 win,
the Giants ran their record to a perfect 10-0. Unfortunately, they lost
in OT the next night and fell 1 game shy of reaching the WHL record for
consecutive undefeated games streak (going back to last season, eh).
Here is Boston Bruins draftee Milan Lucic, a guy whose idea of a light
snack is eating just half the cow, potting a hard-work goal on the Power
Play.
hit. Scott Stevens straddled that line for so long that he left his
proverbial footprints on both sides of the fence.
It's long been established and is the practiced norm that a player is
fair game for a short time after he has received the puck. Now, normally
this isn't much of a problem since most players know to expect to be hit
just after they get rid of the puck.
Where this question of legality comes into play is a hit like Colby
Armstrong delivered to Trevor Letowski.
Now, the hit always looks worse in slow motion, so pay no heed to that.
In real-time, there is one tick and *BLAM*, Letowski has visions of
dancing pucks in his head and gets knocked so far into next year that
he's been assessed $10,000 for late filing of taxes.
It's clear that Letowski had gotten rid of the puck before he was
nailed, and Armstrong made no attempt to side-step Letowski even though
it was obvious that he no longer had the puck. This was a legal hit and
I don't hear too much bickering about it, but I wonder if the league
would be better off enforcing a standard whereby players get penalized
for hitting a player without the puck, or at least not making any
attempt to move out of the way (ala goaltender interference standards).
In happier moments of hockey lore, my friend Duc took this awesome
videoclip from the Giants/Thunderbirds game on Friday. With the 3-0 win,
the Giants ran their record to a perfect 10-0. Unfortunately, they lost
in OT the next night and fell 1 game shy of reaching the WHL record for
consecutive undefeated games streak (going back to last season, eh).
Here is Boston Bruins draftee Milan Lucic, a guy whose idea of a light
snack is eating just half the cow, potting a hard-work goal on the Power
Play.
Comments:
<< Home
Totally think there should be some kind of fine. Armstrong had a good angle to see the puck was gone. Not only did he not try to avoid the hit. It looked like he put a little extra shoulder in the hit.
Give me a break. There was a split second between him getting rid of the puck and Armstrong hitting him. Once he committed to that check, there was no way he could avoid him. If you ever played hockey in your life, you would know this.
Sorry for the abrasive comment, but this topic really ticks me off. It just seems that every time there's a big hit, the first question people ask is "was it legal?" Heck, any heavy body contact of any kind is held with deep suspicion as was evidenced at the Oilers/Canucks game as any solid contact on a Canuck player was greeted with a chorus of boos.
Come on people, hockey is a physical sport. These are big fast athletes, and they are making split second decisions every shift. People are going to get hurt. People are going to make hits just a little late. If you start fining hits like that, then you're ultimately going to take contact completely out of the game because guys will be too afraid to make hits because the potential consequences would be out of line with the realities of the sport.
Sorry for the abrasive comment, but this topic really ticks me off. It just seems that every time there's a big hit, the first question people ask is "was it legal?" Heck, any heavy body contact of any kind is held with deep suspicion as was evidenced at the Oilers/Canucks game as any solid contact on a Canuck player was greeted with a chorus of boos.
Come on people, hockey is a physical sport. These are big fast athletes, and they are making split second decisions every shift. People are going to get hurt. People are going to make hits just a little late. If you start fining hits like that, then you're ultimately going to take contact completely out of the game because guys will be too afraid to make hits because the potential consequences would be out of line with the realities of the sport.
Hello, Hurricanes fan here.
No, the hit wasn't dirty--the kid was moving at speed and didn't have time to change his trajectory or try stopping without risking an even more serious injury. So he held his arms tight to his body and hoped for the best.
I can't even skate, and I can see that (so McLea can shove his patronizing "if you ever played hockey" comment up his ass).
No, the hit wasn't dirty--the kid was moving at speed and didn't have time to change his trajectory or try stopping without risking an even more serious injury. So he held his arms tight to his body and hoped for the best.
I can't even skate, and I can see that (so McLea can shove his patronizing "if you ever played hockey" comment up his ass).
1) We agree it sometimes a fine line between legal and dirty, but that's the refs job to interpret.
2) They correctly saw it as a hard/legal hit and no call was made.
3) Its unfortunate there was an injury, but this is NHL hockey, not Disney on ice.
2) They correctly saw it as a hard/legal hit and no call was made.
3) Its unfortunate there was an injury, but this is NHL hockey, not Disney on ice.
# posted by 
: 8:01 am
: 8:01 am
Ok, first I want to preface this by saying I played competitive hockey from 5-18 years old so don't give me one of those "Oh if you only played" comments.
This was a dirty hit, plain and simple. It's not that he hit him; he had lined up the hit and was ready to take him out. The game is moving too quickly to totally get out of the way. But what's wrong with this hit if you look at the fast version even is that he makes NO movement whatsoever. He must recognize that this guy no longer has the puck, but he doesnt do anything to try to stop, change his angle, use his hands to push off instead of lining up for a hit that the opposing player has no idea is coming.
It really seems from the video that he wants to lay him into the next century, even when he knows the puck is no longer there AND that this guy has no idea he's going to get rocked. It's mean spirited and dirty. I would assess a 5 game suspension at least.
This was a dirty hit, plain and simple. It's not that he hit him; he had lined up the hit and was ready to take him out. The game is moving too quickly to totally get out of the way. But what's wrong with this hit if you look at the fast version even is that he makes NO movement whatsoever. He must recognize that this guy no longer has the puck, but he doesnt do anything to try to stop, change his angle, use his hands to push off instead of lining up for a hit that the opposing player has no idea is coming.
It really seems from the video that he wants to lay him into the next century, even when he knows the puck is no longer there AND that this guy has no idea he's going to get rocked. It's mean spirited and dirty. I would assess a 5 game suspension at least.
# posted by : 10:20 am
: 10:20 am
You can hit guys right after they get rid of the puck. It happens every game. So spare me all this "he didn't have the puck bullshit. It's freaking hockey. Your supposed to want to hit people hard.
Post a Comment
<< Home
