ok

that was a great read...definitely see John Scott in a different light, gotta love these player tribune stories

after reading that there's no doubt in my mind that i'd rather see an ASG full of John Scotts

Denis Widemen suspended indefinitely, hearing after all star break.

No one should be surprised by this.

If there going to spend Ovechkin and Toews for a game for missing the all star game when legitimately injured because it's the rule of law then Wideman should get a minimum of 20 games.

IMO I think he probably didn't have his wits about him and thought it was another player and just reacted. That said if you're going to apply the rules a rule thing you have to apply it to every situation not just some of the time.


40.2 Automatic Suspension – Category I - Any player who deliberately strikes an official and causes injury or who deliberately applies physical force in any manner against an official with intent to injure, or who in any manner attempts to injure an official shall be automatically suspended for not less than twenty (20) games. (For the purpose of the rule, “intent to injure” shall mean any physical force which a player knew or should have known could reasonably be expected to cause injury.)

The whole issue will be if it was deliberate. They'll argue he was woozy til the end of time. I can see him getting somewhere from 10-20 games

20 games is light, even though it's the "rule". That was beyond deliberate and looked malicious. Not much info has been released yet from anyone.

The linesman was in the hospital until 5 am

Edit: Tegra apparently doesn't believe the linesman was in the hospital until 5 am ...

http://www.thescore.com/news/947505

I agree. Question is what is the typical reaction when you're woozy?

-Skate slowly back to the bench?
-Try to regain your focus as you skate?
-If you see something or someone in your way, you would put your arm and hand against that object to brace yourself?

I see none of that. He put his other hand on his stick and in a cross checking manner shoved the linesman. Keep in mind that the opposing preds player was skating back, he could've cross checked that player instead.

And the thing is, if Wideman was woozy, Calgary should've pulled him and done a concussion protocol!

Man that whole John Scott thing and various other media fumbles and weird suspension / non-suspension and questionable referee decisions this year has really made me feel not very good about the NHL... Text book example of how to make a high quality product that speaks for itself look low quality and possibly even completely rigged.

And this is problem when there is a lack of transparency.

The NHL doesn't care though so there won't be any changes.

I liked how Shanny brought about telling why a player got suspended. An additional step that I would like to see is them making a video for why a player wasn't suspended on a borderline/controversial hit that gets reviewed.

I don't buy the "he was woozy" thing too much. He got up had a slow skate, then had about 2 or 3 good hard strides, and banged his stick on the ice with one hand. Then grabbed his stick with both hands, and targetted the linesmans head in a hard crosscheck.

usually if you get your bell rung you either barely skate and just coast, or if you try skate hard you do the old stankey leg all over

Here's Kerry Fraser's take on the incident.

C?Mon Ref: A former NHL official?s take on the Wideman incident - Article - TSN

Wideman suspended pending a hearing on Feb. 2

I think he'll get 20 games

Usually it's pretty cut and dry
Kerry Fraser hits it on point, that's a 20 gamer at least

But the NHL is so shitty at being consistent when it comes to player discipline and punishments, wouldn't be surprised if he got just 5-10 games.

Kerry Fraser should be director of player discipline.
The amount of detail he picked up from that play in his explanation was more than I had expected.

thats too much work for a retired official that is clearly enjoying whatever he is doing right now.

as for the John Scott article... awesome he is going, but did the league really say that? "are your daughters going to be proud?"

thats a pretty low blow

watch the whole thing, but at 1:19 Miller is fuckin SAVAGE LOL

If they still have the fan vote next year, everyone should vote for Dorsett!

Remember that first campaign when it was "Vote for Rory"? He was leading up to the last week and somehow he was "outvoted". I'm surprised there weren't phantom votes from the NHL for Scott to not make the game.

I don't think it was that he was outvoted, it was that they said there were multiple votes from the same people so they didn't count those votes instead.

The NHL is going to learn from this. There will not be a free reign vote in for the all star. They'll change it so that you can vote from a pool of players instead of any player in the NHL.

^^ I remember when they released the numbers over 4 weeks, one week was like 100,000-200,000 votes less than every other week for rory. it was obviously a case of the league 'vote-fixing'.

The NHL is such a joke. Not like the all-star game is truly an all-star game anyways.

The NHL as a league has always been a joke. There's a reason they can't even compare to Football, Basketball, or Baseball in the US.

Torres on waivers

pick up my boy raffi!!!! rather have him on the team then prust!!!!!!!!!!!