Last night's Stanley Cup game was hard to watch. No, not just because it was an 8-1 rout. That didn't hurt, but all the jawing and cheap hits really got in the way of a good game. Too much action after the whistle, too much "gamesmanship," too much jawing, etc. It's hockey, there is going to be hitting, and there should be hitting. Nothing fires up a crowd more than a sweet hit. But when the hits are taking precedence in the game, that's a problem. When things like this are happening, there are problems. Blind punches to the back of anybody's head, even somebody as hated in Boston as Alex Burrows, is just shameful. The taunting is one thing. Not my thing (at that point in the game, anyway), but a punch like that is just disgusting. I'm not an advocate for removing fighting from hockey, but that is not fighting. I'm not sure that's even a cheap shot. You don't like what Burrows did? There's plenty of room to punish him with hits or just fight him straight up. Don't sink to this sort of level. It's embarrassing for everybody. And as far as the hit on Nathan Horton: it's very unfortunate. If you didn't see it, here it is. The hit itself is bad enough, the aftermath was downright scary. Aaron Rome was tossed from the game, and that's fair. Was it really that dirty, though? It was well after the pass, and he lowered his shoulder a bit, but the bigger problem seemed to be that Horton wasn't paying attention. I wouldn't call it a blindside hit. The only reason it was blind was because Horton wasn't watching where he was going. You want to do everything possible to protect players and punish dirty hits, but there has to be some sort of responsibility on the skater to protect himself. You can't punish somebody for making a "blind" hit when the skater didn't bother to look to see where the other players were on the ice. I probably could write more about the Cubs getting demolished (again) and about how Mike Greenberg is so off-base about Zambrano being pissed off at losing, but frankly, I don't really feel up to it. My alma mater spurned me for a job without even giving me an interview, and I'm about eight kinds of hurt about it and don't really feel like doing any more than is necessary today. If you feel like you need to come by and cheer me up, I'll be at Danville Stadium tonight enjoying $2 Tuesday, and might need somebody to make sure I don't overindulge in the $2 beer. Comments are closed.
|
Archives
March 2022
|