Clean hit or dirty? Liambus on Fanelli

[cliffjohnson]

Originally Posted by blu_fuz

At 39 seconds it shows the hitter smashing the guy in the head with his shoulder. I would suspend him, clearly a little rough for the situation and was planning on a 150% hit regardless of what the other guy was doing. He clearly wasn't planning on slowing down at all.

I don't see that at 39, agree to disagree, slow-mo on YouTube needs to be an option.

[shoteen95]

Did you see him mow down the another guy a second later in the top left of the vid. Jesus.

[blu_fuz]

Where do you draw the line for sports like this? The sport isn't called "hit me as hard as you can because I have pads and a helmet on".

It was just too much no matter what the score or situation. Suspension for a game or two, sure. The rest of the season, probably not.

He obvously was in tunnel vision and didn't care about the puck, he was out to hurt someone.

[bishop375]

Looks like it was 1. a hit from behind, and 2. an elbow to the head.

[svtfan22]

It was a hit from behind but only because the defencemen turned putting himself in a bad spot. Its just something that happens in the game and while a suspension is warranted because it was reckless ( If you think that he wasn't trying to kill that guy your nuts) the whole season is a way to much.
Idiots like this kid will get what they deserve on the ice that's the way the game works.

[SVTED]

No way. They suspended him for that? I remember seeing that hit the day after it happened and going "that guy's a dumbass for turning like that"

[SVTED]

Originally Posted by blu_fuz

Where do you draw the line for sports like this?

Three strides before hit, feet have to stay on the ice, no getting elbows or hands up.

And recently, no hitting to the head at all.

Otherwise, I say it's fair game. I've been on both ends playing and I'm fine.

[Phil Rohtla]

From that footage, it looks like a clean hit by the letter of the rules. He appears to catch Fanelli in the jaw/face/head area, and spins him, sending his head off the glass, where his loose helmet did no good.

But, the letter of the rules is one thing -- the intent is another. I know that they always say "finish your checks", but I think that he could--and maybe should-- have seen that Fanelli was in a dangerous position, and had already gotten rid of the puck. Keeping the shoulder out of it, and simply sealing him against the boards would have helped his team, and not put anyone in the hospital. Or, just simply try to avoid making the hit in the first place.

Once again, we are seeing that Don Cherry was right -- he may be a loudly painted braying ass at times, but when he pointed out that the newer, lighter and harder shoulder pads would cause a lot of injuries, and when he decried the lack of respect in the current game, he was spot on.

Scott Stevens was notrious for headhunting and taking guys out, and damn near killing them, but with legal hits. The first couple of times he did it, I thought it was awesome, but then it became a pattern, with an intent to injure in each instance. After he laid out one of the Carolina Hurricanes in the playoffs one year, and the replays indicated he was looking to make the hit when he started skating from the other side of the ice, I quickly changed my tune. There was no respect or honour in his actions. When he took out Lindros, he knew damn well Lindros had a history of cncussions, but he led with a shoulder anyway. In my opinion, people who do that deserve long suspensions (and Marchment should have been kicked out of hockey for his knee-onknee-penchant).

As the players get bigger and faster, and stronger, there needs to be a serious examination of equipment and rules to keep stuff like this from becoming commonplace.

[SVTED]

Originally Posted by Phil Rohtla

But, the letter of the rules is one thing -- the intent is another. I know that they always say "finish your checks", but I think that he could--and maybe should-- have seen that Fanelli was in a dangerous position, and had already gotten rid of the puck. Keeping the shoulder out of it, and simply sealing him against the boards would have helped his team, and not put anyone in the hospital. Or, just simply try to avoid making the hit in the first place.

Seen that Fanelli was in a dangerous position? Can you even count the number of hits that forwards finish on defencemen after the puck's been dumped in and retrieved? Had already gotten rid of the puck is irrelevant because he gets hit almost as he gets rid of the puck (let's not forget it's release puck, 2, 3, and then they're not fair game). Also Fanelli turns as he's shooting the puck around and you can say Liambus should've/could've stopped but if you watch the video, it's less than a second between looking like he's coming in for a regular hit and it turns into this freak accident.

Now I'm not saying that Liambus didn't have other intentions, but by the rules he did nothing wrong. It was just an unfortunate accident. Thus I find it ridiculous that they would suspend him for the season. This is somewhat like what happened to Bertuzzi as in the league reacted and penalized the player based on the final results instead of the actual crime.

Once again, we are seeing that Don Cherry was right -- he may be a loudly painted braying ass at times, but when he pointed out that the newer, lighter and harder shoulder pads would cause a lot of injuries, and when he decried the lack of respect in the current game, he was spot on.

Scott Stevens was notrious for headhunting and taking guys out, and damn near killing them, but with legal hits. The first couple of times he did it, I thought it was awesome, but then it became a pattern, with an intent to injure in each instance. After he laid out one of the Carolina Hurricanes in the playoffs one year, and the replays indicated he was looking to make the hit when he started skating from the other side of the ice, I quickly changed my tune. There was no respect or honour in his actions. When he took out Lindros, he knew damn well Lindros had a history of cncussions, but he led with a shoulder anyway. In my opinion, people who do that deserve long suspensions (and Marchment should have been kicked out of hockey for his knee-onknee-penchant).

As the players get bigger and faster, and stronger, there needs to be a serious examination of equipment and rules to keep stuff like this from becoming commonplace.

I have to agree on your post about Cherry and Scott Stevens. But at the same time, I find it a little odd that now every hit that results in a player getting injured is deemed a match penalty and sometimes a suspension.

[Joey]

Originally Posted by Phil Rohtla

From that footage...

Nice post...I'd like to say I agree with most of what you had listed.

At the speed of the game, I don't know if you can hold up...but you can keep from following through. Last thing we would want to see is another situation like Roy up at Boston University.

I can't say that I've seen enough Erie games to tell you if this is the way Liambus is. My hopes would be that his past is taken into consideration when inflicting a suspension of this nature.