On the Beat: Tuomo Ruutu suspended three games; Darcy Tucker at home resting

Posted by Richard Pollock in On the Beat on October 24, 2009 — 3 Comments

What team beat writers are saying this Saturday afternoon:

Evgeni Artyukhin won’t change his style of play in Anaheim. Why would he? The Ducks acquired him knowing his hard-edge style and clearly want him to play that way–within reason of course.
Tim Thomas is the expected starter for the Bruins today. He didn’t play Thursday, so this is no surprise.
Tuomo Ruutu has been suspended for three games for his hit on Darcy Tucker last night. Should have gotten seven games in my opinion. This hit was clearly dirty–it really wasn’t even close.

At least Darcy Tucker is resting at home. Very good news.
No Toni Lydman for the Sabres tonight. Injury doesn’t look too serious.
With Jack Dowell being recalled from Rockford, it looks like no Jonathan Toews tonight for Chicago. Why would they dress him? He clearly had a concussion.
Brent Seabrook will also be out for Chicago. Don’t mess with concussions.
Here are the Blue Jackets’ lines for tonight’s game. Brassard gets a demotion.
Jose Theodore starts tonight for Washington against the Islanders. Fleischmann close to return in Washington.

Mt

If the NHL cared about head injuries, they would have a very tough bright-line rule. This type of hit can be almost totally eliminated, but it may take a draconian, Singapore-style punishment for ALL offenses. The day would come when they’d have to suspend someone like Sydney, and the Queen wouldn’t like that at all.

The science on concussions is becoming clearer, and it is not good. Multiple concussions severely impairs later life, and may result in early death. Players aren’t going to get this, and they don’t have real incentives to protect themselves – stronger rules need to be enforced to protect them.

It is a cop-out to take the injuries and say “well that was dirty”. The fact is that Tucker was moving pretty fast, Ruutu was moving fast, and that play was basically a twitch from being clean. You can say it was intentional, but nobody really intends to send someone to the hospital. Maybe it started as a bit of message-sending and wound up worse than intended. Tucker got Tucker-ed here.

Now we’ll see what the league says about Richards after the ambulance was needed for Booth. We’ll hear “had his head down” but that is the second most popular cop-out. The league needs to clarify and communicate serious rules eliminating head and neck injuries, and severely punish ALL offenders EVEN IN THE PLAYOFFS.

Nascar drivers b*tched about the Hans-device after Earnhardt died, but you know what – they’re all still alive.
http://www.illegalcurve.com Richard

Great comment. I totally agree.

My concern with the Booth hit is the head-shot factor. Look at the NFL. It is a brutally physical game but they do their best to protect their players by policing head shots. Why isn’t the NHL doing the same?
Bob Roberts

But Mt: can you legislate attitude or respect? If nobody really intends injure, isn’t an attitude of playing hard but respecting a player in a vulnerable position what’s needed? I don’t know if harsh penalties will change the lack of respect that taking advantage of a vulnerable opponent illustrates.

Also: What are you saying with: “Tucker got Tucker-ed here.”?

I’m not sure if you’re saying it was something Tucker has done before to another player, but if you are:

(1) would your comments (particularly that one) have been different if the victim of Ruutu’s hit was a perrenial Lady Byng winner?, and

(2) are you implying some sort of “live by the sword, die by the sword” concept?

The NFL players also have much better helmuts.