Dean Lombardi just told me that Rob Scuderi will be fined but not suspended for his hit on Jason Chimera last night. Lombardi said he did not know the amount of the fine, and no amount has been disclosed by the league yet.
(EDIT) Also: Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch reports that Derek Dorsett will not be fined or suspended for his role in the post-hit fracas.
Fair enough. No suspension was warranted. The NHL makes its point.
Next time hit him 18″ higher, Rob.
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Just glad that they did not overreact and suspend him. It was a borderline play. I am still mad about the Cleary leg whip on Kopitar. That was intentional & had shoulder sep written all over it and we are fortunate he did not get hurt.
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what about the elbow to Doughty’s head?
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I’m not sure if Dorsett left the bench or not, but if he did, isn’t that an automatic 10-game suspension? I remember Adam Mair getting slapped with one of those in Ottawa…
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I thought it would be a fine only based on what they did to Ovechkin with his slew foot incident last week with no injury.
NHLPA’s reason for no suspension for Ovechkin was “no injury” and not a “repeat offender”. I’m sure it’s considered a warning.
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Retarted. If Scuds was Malkin (as in elbow to Simmer’s head), he gets nothing.
And how does Dorsett get nothing for his antics? Joke.
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The league decided that Dorsett suffered the indignity of being beat up by two linesmen, so that embarassment ought to sufficiently teach him a lesson…
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Seems fair to me. The hit was low and should not be overlooked, but it did not warrant a suspension.
Apparently, and I don’t remember where I read it, Dorsett did not come off the bench and go straight after Scuderi, he went after him after the play was blown dead. He probably did deserve more than the game misconduct for his physicality with the officials (even though it wasn’t intentionally directed at them), a fine would seem to be appropriate.
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i think they ruled that dorsett was in the middle of a line-change so he was already on the ice.
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If the NHL wants to make a point and give Scud a fine, so be it. However there should be at least a fine going the other way for the Intent to injure Fro and possibly for the elbow thrown at Drew as well.
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Johnny Utah, Malkin did get fined for that elbow.
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A fine is fair. Gives warning to keep hits from being around the knee. Wasn’t suspension worthy for sure.
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So we should see a suspension and fine or at least a bigger fine for the Richards hit?
How is Scuderi’s hit worthy of MORE than what Richards got, which was NOTHING! This is the kind of double Standard which makes our league retarded. The NHLPA, if they can ever figure out who’s in charge, might want to ask the NHL to set some boundaries here.
I guess the message here is:
“Work hard to become famous so you can be wreckless without recompense”
OR
“Make sure if you’re going to hit someone, knock them out. If you only draw blood or they feel the hit, you’ll be sorry.”
No wonder our league organization SUCKS!!!! 10 year olds on the handball court at my son’s school are better at keeping and policing rules than these nutjobs. Truly pathetic.
Sorry Rob. Next time, knock Chimera out. You won’t get fined. You can use Richards as an example. Message sent.
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Agree with most. The fine was the right way to go. I don’t think hitting someone that low is necessary and seems a little dangerous. But it’s certainly not dirty enough for suspension. NHL got this one right IMO.
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Fair enough even though it wasn’t dirty.
The donkey punch to Fro’s head should be AT LEAST fined.
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Off topic but of the top 30 pts leaders in the league the Kings have 5!!!
How sweet is that?
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Good deal! BS on no consequences to Dorsett leaving the bench and/or Chimera’s hit to the head on Frolov!
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Maybe the fine is a good thing in that enough fines might somehow condition players into not getting into those situations as often. But the fact of the matter is that the Richards play and this play are situations and decisions and physical actions that all occur in a SPLIT second time frame, and each of them could have different outcomes if small adjustments take place in these fractions of a second. Meaning I think they are borderline calls given the nature of the sport. So I would be ok with fines, even if neither of the plays were dirty, but rather only unfortunate, and fractions of time and space from being less fortunate, outcomes.
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The guys on versus both just said it was a clean hip check, and they don’t see why Chimera was so mad, it was a one on one play and chimera saw it coming. And those 2 guys don’t usually agree.
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rich-
did they indeed rule, as someone speculated, that dorsett was in a legal line change and so therefor no suspension? or are they sweeping it under the rug?
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Fine is the proper call as long as it’s not too big, he has no history of dirty hits. I also wish everyone would stop whining about Frolov getting his hat knocked off and Drew getting a kind of elbow. Man up will ya no one on the Kings nor the players themselves are even upset. I mean we owned them in every aspect of the game last night, stuffs bound to get rough. Those of you who don’t like the physicality of hockey should watch golf. Tiger will never get a cheap shot or high stick and you can feel good about it.
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If the fine was more than $1, it was too much.
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Fine. Great. Let’s move on. I love the Kings’ composure in that game. They dominated with their play and didn’t get drawn in by the Blue Jackets’ bad emotional plays. I’ve heard that the Blue Jackets are equal in many aspects with the Kings, but we definitely showed them who wins in terms of keeping composure. Go Kings.
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How is Scuderi’s hit worse, in any fashion, than the clear shoulder-meets-cranium shot that Mike Richards put on David Booth? Honestly, the NHL disciplinary office is so Kafka-esque it’s ridiculous.
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How about making him send chimera a nice fruit basket instead?
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So now whenever a Kings player gets a bad call by the ref…
….he will officially be called ‘SCUDER-IED’
Ex: Jarret Stoll got fully Scuderied on that hooking call.
Put it down in the LAKI official book of adverbs.
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Tis a fair cop…
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http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/What-We-Learned-Grading-the-weekend-s-dirtiest-;_ylt=AsmHo3.usDHNnE1xfpkpc797vLYF?urn=nhl,198176
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If teams are allowed to police themselves, I guarantee you would less dirty hits. Let the players police themselves!
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Puck Daddy is on crack. Great read, but Scuderi’s hit an A+ over Richards C-?? The guy Richards knocked into next week didn’t wake up for 5 minutes! Chimera was on his knees talking in 10 seconds!
Rich, Greg is a helluva writer. This must have been written on his 12th Guinness Stout. That is just pure insanity. Richards goes for the head, Scuds just hipchecks low, but not low enough to knock a guy cold for 5+ minutes. That needs a rewrite IMHO. Bad analysis. More like dialysis than analysis. Just encourages the NHL to believe they are doing the right things. It will only hurt the players later.
Thank God they’re only opinions and not facts. WOW!
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Cynic…check the byline there. I believe it was one of Greg’s associates writing that blog item. Which isn’t to say that Greg wasn’t on his 12th Guinness… Really good guy, really good writer.
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I get the Holy Grail reference mash-ola
Glad there was no suspension, but where’s the fine for Chimeras retaliation on Frolov?
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How easy it is to not pay attention to a detail, such as the writer of a story, when you’re busy criticing it. Well, my bad on Greg. My full apologies. I’m GLAD it wasn’t him because I dig his coverage and that article naturally made me assume he was drunk. (LOL)
I sure do want Greg’s take on that article now though.
I will say he MUST be on #12 to let Ryan Lambert write such fodder under his Puck Daddy moniker though.
This has been such a nasty thorn in the side of the NHL for such a long time and nothing has been done about it. They’ll make rule changes almost every year, but for some reason, disciplinary action is so grey that you can’t help but think Colin Campbell is a frat boy running justice on the ‘pledge’ system of government. It’s going to lead to a player getting seriously maimed or even killed because the borders are not uphels as much as they are defined.
Anyway, thanks for the heads up Rich.
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WHOOPS! Critiquing….Need an edit feature on these posts for sloppy typers like me.
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Scuderi’s knees were on the ground – his shoulder was at Chimera’s knee level, no penalty and more than likely a paltry fine. I get you guys are homers, but that’s ridiculous. Worst part Scuderi said he thought it was clean- Are you kidding me? He normally goes down on his knees to make a `hip check`? weak – he’ll get his
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CK
Nice try. You are the only person on the planet who thinks that Scuderi’s knees were on the ground. (p.s. we call it “ice.”) Seriously, draw a picture of it. Scuderi’s knees are on the frozen-watery “ground.” Now, his shoulder’s are at Chimera’s knees, which are, of course, about 18″ above the floor (do you mind if I call it a floor?). Now, you try that. Your shoulders 18″ off the ice (ground/floor), your knees on the ice (ibid) and your skates also on the ice and in fact never leaving the ice. You have described Scuderi wadded up into a little ball and (please just picture knees on the ice and skates also on the ice) apparently with either double-jointed or broken feet.
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ck missed the crow bar and dagger that Scuderi was carrying in both of his left hands that really caused the blood to Chimera’s face, not the “ice”. Where do you people come from? Are you aliens?
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Good call by the league. He clearly made a dangerously low hit to the knee area, but did not hurt him nor does he have a history.
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Quisp and B-scribe: Great posts!!
CK: You’re a tool (knees were on the “ground”)HAHAHAHAHAHA!
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The league obviously decided that some action was warranted, I disagree!!!! The hit was the hit the refs said no penalty, but the leaque falls into this stance of we have to do something. Typical the NHL halfway in and halfway out.
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The Magic 8-Ball said ‘As I see it, yes’ to a fine and ‘Outlook not so good’ on a suspension, so Colin Campbell simply played messenger. It’s what he’s good at. What a tool.
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“If teams are allowed to police themselves, I guarantee you would less dirty hits. Let the players police themselves!”
I agree…
However, when challenged…. Scuderi declined.
Hopefully, the Jackets will just let it go.. But most cheapshots are returned.
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Derek Dorsett left the bench to engage in a fight. The NHL rules about leaving the bench are clear cut. Absolute joke….
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If players were allowed to police themselves there would be fewer…hipchecks?
p.s. I don’t see why Scuderi has to fight anyone to “back up” a clean, legal check. The whole “when challenged Scuderi declined to fight” idea only works if you think the check was dirty, which it wasn’t. No intent, arguably no contact and certainly no injury to the knees. Frankly, I find it laughable that someone could make a low hit to a player’s knees using their BACK. Just because he was lower to the ice than you usually see with a hip check doesn’t mean the contact was low (it wasn’t; see the video when Chimera is lifted into the air: the point of contact is clearly and I think unambiguously his lower thigh). And just because Chimera landed on his face doesn’t mean Scuderi’s check was reckless or dangerous, any more than the puck to Doughty’s teeth was reckless or dangerous. Before I heard all of Chimera’s idiotic embarrassed comments, I only wanted the best for him (i.e. I hoped he was okay). After his dopey b.s., however, I just think, “dude, learn to keep control of your body.” There have been 1000s of old-fashioned hip-checks just like that over the last hundred years — I have personally received more than a few — and it’s just about the least painful (though most humiliating) check to be on the receiving end of. You flip head over heels, you land in a pile, usually (duh) hands first and then back and then butt. LIke a summersault. Chimera landed on his face. Not Scuderi’s fault.
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CK where did you watch the game the Blue Oyster.
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I’m glad he wasn’t suspended. Lets move on to San Jose. Go Kings
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