20 fucking games? Are you fucking kidding me? Downie’s hit on McAmmond was egregious, to be sure - at best it’s the work of an over-eager kid thinking he’s still trying to impress Bobby Clarke, at worst a pre-meditated attempt to injure (which I highly doubt) - but a 20 game suspension? That’s more actual regular season games than Bertuzzi served for trying to murder Steve Moore. In fact, Bertuzzi served a 13 regular season game suspension and was out 7 playoff games: 20 actual games. So, are Downie’s actions equal to those of Bertuzzi? I didn’t hear anything about Downie and a Brad May-like cohort plotting to ‘get’ McAmmond, I didn’t see McAmmond attempt to skate away from Downie, I saw a guy making a mistake that hockey coaches have been yelling at players about since the dawn of time: Skating with his head down. Now, just because D-Mc made a mistake doesn’t mean I think he should be hospitalized, but a good hitter will look for his opportunities and pounce on them. Seeing the hit I was reminded of a few Scott Stevens numbers: bone-crushing, tooth-rattling, concussion-inducing (and that was just the Lindros hits!). I went looking for, and found, some video of his top ten biggest hits. In nine of them, the hittee never sees Stevens Stevens coming (because they had their head down!), in at least six of them Stevens leaves his feet to catch the guy up high, (one of the no-nos mentioned about Downie’s hit) and, in seven of them, Stevens brings up an elbow. Stevens was lauded for these and many other hits, but, a guy like him probably served quite a few games suspended, right? I looked, and found that he served THREE different suspensions, totaling SIX games, not one of the suspensions for a hit. I just can’t help but think that if Stevens had made that hit, it would have been all McAmmond’s fault in the eyes of the league, the players and the press. Take these words to heart, kids, cuz I mean them: skating with your head down is dumb, trying to hurt a guy is mean and Downie’s suspension is bullshit.
Downie’s Syndrome
This was written by jefcanuk. Posted on Friday, September 28, 2007, at 7:03 pm. Filed under the New Jersey Devils are vile bastards, closely reasoned analysis, jefcanuk. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Post a comment or leave a trackback.
2 Comments
Fair enough, you’ve done your research. Just to be clear however, I assume you mean that the suspension is bullshit because it is too long (Yes, it is.), and not simply because he got suspended (which he should be). I dont expect every aspiring NHLer to remember every other player’s concussion history—especially in the heat of the moment—but the last time I remember seeing Dean McAmmond, he was sliding over the blueline on his back, unconscious and concussed from a Pronger love-tap during the finals last season—Pronger was suspended for one game if memory serves.
As far as Scott Stevens is concerned, you can flatten Eric Lindros as many times as you’d like—throw elbows—leave your feet—line him up from the opposing goal line. I don’t give a fuck. You’re not going to earn my lasting hatred that way. I have a suspicion that the on-ice officials would agree with me in an uncharacteristically candid moment.
Also seems to me that the number “37″ looks TOTALLY unlike the number “5″ of Christoph Schubert. The number that flattened Downie seconds beforehand.
I suspect the officials and the league took the retaliatory aspect of the hit (and the fact that he can jump higher on skates than any other player in any league in the world. Leaving your feet is one thing—leaving low-earth orbit is another) into account when sending him up the river for an over-long rest.
Suspend Downie? Sure. Suspend him for 20 games? Seems a bit much. For all you Downie fans out there, however—don’t despair—he’s made his mark, and we’ll see him on the Flyers’ roster by the end of the season.
Downie lined him up pretty fuckin’ good, but 20 games is bullshit, agreed. I’m tired of players being made examples of and eventually the NHL will be about as exciting as arena touch-football.
I do hope Downie comes back with a vengeance and makes his mark on the league.
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