Canucks beg to disagree on Rome hit, league suspension
Rome
BOSTON — Aaron Rome decided not to speak in person today to answer for his actions of last night in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Rome’s hit to the head of Bruins forward Nathan Horton sent the winger to the hospital with a severe concussion in the first period of Boston’s 8-1 win.
Instead the Vancouver defenseman issued a statement via the league:
“I want to express my concern for Nathan’s well being and wish him a quick and full recovery. I try to play this game honestly and with integrity. As someone who has experienced this type of injury I am well aware of its serious nature and have no desire for another player to experience it. I will not take away my teammates’ focus on the task at hand and intend to speak at an appropriate time in future.”
While you can question the sincerity of a statement issued by a player like some accused politician, at least Rome didn’t stoop to the levels of his teammates and coach who were all in denial about the nature of the hit that earned Rome a four-game suspension today from the NHL.
“I do think at the end of the day also it was a north/south play, [Zdeno] Chara to Horton, he made a pass to [Milan] Lucic,” said coach Alain Vigneault, whose team leads the series heading into tomorrow night’s Game 4.. “He was looking at his pass. Aaron was a tad late.
“Aaron isn’t a dirty player, never has been, never will be. It was a hit that unfortunately turned bad.”
Captain Henrik Sedin went out of his way to defend his teammate during media availability at Boston University on the off day between games.
“[Horton] passes the puck, Rome steps up. It’s not like it’s a blindside,” said the twin. “I think the guy didn’t even know that he was there. I thought it was a good hit.”
As for the suspension, Vigneault sounded baffled.
“Well, in my opinion, it’s not the right call,” he said. “We’ve had instances just in the San Jose series, and Aaron was the player, where he’s facing the board and he gets hit, there’s no suspension there. [Ben] Eager’s hit on Danny [Sedin] in my mind, where again he’s facing the board, doesn’t get hurt, could have serious consequences. In my opinion, those were two suspendable offenses that weren’t.
“Last night, it was very unfortunate that hit turned bad. We’re real disappointed the player got hurt. But it was a north/south play. It was a little bit late. But anybody that’s played this game knows that you have to make a decision in a fraction of a second. He’s engaged in the hit. I don’t know how the league could come up with that decision really.”
Has anyone mentioned that the hit was to the head in addition to being late? Didn’t think so.
Ok. First off, bashing the Sedin’s is kinda lame. They’re two of the most skilled players in this league and aren’t the first guys with that kind of elite skill to be accused of having soft moments. Secondly, I think 4 games may have been stiff, though I do agree with the guy above who said it is a little different when the two teams are involved in a series vs one another. 1-2 would have been appropriate in my opinion. Thirdly the hit was not really too dirty, just a “bad” reaction. The problem Rome, or any Canuck lover has with defending it, is that he didn’t make his move to hit Horton until after the puck was gone. I believe the timing wasn’t as severe as the fact that after the puck was gone was when Rome began to execute the hit. Watch it again, he doesn’t shift into the lane until its gone. Having said that, I played an on the edge style of defense, at a decent level and there is no way I would be turning down that chance to hammer a top 3 guy on the opposition. Mind you, I would have to now respect the league’s new mandates and accept the punishment handed out if it did cross their line. Either that or not completely finish that hit as much as I would have loved to. Fourthly (is that a word??), in my mind there was absolutely nothing wrong with what Chara did to Pacioretty. That same play happens about 50 times every game. The only difference is that the turnbuckle isn’t there, and Pacioretty got destroyed. I’ve talked to diehard MTL fans who completely agree that, if he wasn’t injured, there may have not even been a 2 minute interference call on that play. Regardless, Chara did nothing more than maybe interfere. It’s not his responsibility to make a different play because of the rink’s construction. I remember a guy cutting in on my d partner and he hammered him clean and the poor guy went face first into the crossbar losing about 10 teeth and breaking his jaw. We all hated to see it but it’s simply bad luck. Another point that should be made is that offensive players respect the turnbuckle and 9 times out of 10 bail if they think they have a chance of eating it.
5thly, it must be really boring to be a Canuck fan if you have to find a Bruin board to some chirp on. You know no one on here is going to agree with what you say (whether you’re right or wrong). You must just love senseless debate.
George: Absolutely NO ONE that watches Chara regularly and is objective about the game would ever call Chara a “dirty” player. His turnbuckle hit on Pacioretty was interference (just like Rome’s late hit), and the resulting injury was unfortunate, but I don’t believe intentional at all ……. however, if the severity of the resulting injury is to be taken into consideration when punishment (suspension length) is dealt-out by the disciplinary committee (just like MM said it was in Rome’s case), then Chara should have been looking at a lengthy suspension; fair-is-fair. Rome has absolutely no history of cheap-shots, just like Chara. The problem I have with all of this is that there is no consistency from the NHL what-so-ever. The Bruins have a tough team that plays on the edge (no coincidence that they have 17 Canadians on the roster including 2 boys from Vancouver); what I have an issue with is when certain Bruin “fans”(and I use that term loosely …… there’s more Bruin fans north of the 39th than south) go postal about Rome’s hit when it isn’t even in the top fifteen “dirty” hits of THESE playoffs (but is the 3rd longest in PO history).
We can go back for the last 30 years for every team there are plays that dirty. If Canucks fans want to say we have a bad memory then why don’t you look up some the hits Raffi Torres has made in the past, notably on Seabrook in the first round. We have been over this a million times, people calling Chara a dirty player but don’t remember Max Paciaretty boarding an Islander from behind. Let’s just leave it at what some people like Phillip and others have said….the players need to respect each other and/or make better decisions then less of this stuff. I agree on the equipment issue for sure, GM’s have brought it up.
TSN has a different angle on Romes’ cheap shot. From the look of it he planned to KO Horton, especially how he crouched down and them jumped into the blind side head hit. Spineless, but nobody will convince me he had to do it because the Bruins were playing some hard hitting clean hockey.
Roller Derby is the best path to Victory my friend, for the Bruins. Watch it and weep.
Shanimal,
You’re missing the point. Angry hockey always escalates into this crap. Look at what happened with Max Pacioretty. He did something that had every bruins fan calling for his head. It had Chara wanting to rip him to pieces. Finally, it call caught up to him with the mother of all headshots.
Rome’s hit was illegal but it happend in 0.5 seconds. If the Bruins continue to play all out non-stop crush/injure/maim your opponent hockey, the bodies will indeed pile up and occasionally, someone will get hit in the head.
Why not play…gee fast skillful hockey? Was it really so hard to watch Marchand do a beautiful pass to himself and then OUTSKATE the opponent and deke out Luongo? THIS is the hockey I like.
The hockey you advocate leads to separated shoulders, knee injuries, broken ribs, and YES CONCUSSIONS.
So agree to disagree but you can’t tell a guy to play a certain style without accepting the risks associated with this style. It’s not a coincidence that Boston has so many serious concussion issues. It’s this type of style night in and night out with them.
I think the NHL will have to look closely at the NFL suspensions if they want to rid this stuff. When an NFL player is suspended for unwanted behavior it results in 25 to 50 percent of the season. Two, three, four games mid-season means nothing. You lose the same amount of time as players receiving these hits (and suffer the loss of your income), then you’ll curb the problem.
RD you are going off the tracks! Stop attempting to put words into my posts that aren’t there. Damn right I want to see the “bodies hit the floor” tonight! I’m advocating heavy CLEAN hitting. If you ever payed attention you would know this is how the Bruins are at thier best, when they hit every player who has the puck.
I’m not advocating cheap shots like Aaron Rome is now infamous for. That stuff doesn’t belong in the game. But when you need a spatula to take some Canucks off the boards tonight after soem BIG CLEAN HITS, you may understand what I’m saying.
Did you know he blew the Canucks chances at the cup in Game 3?
I remember that hit Ryder made on Jones, and wasn’t too upset with it, mostly because Randy Jones is the s.o.b. that almost ended Bergeron’s career. He should have had a game or two for that, sure. Chara on Paccioretty wasn’t a dirty play at all. Chara went through the normal motions of a hit, which certainly was interference. However, he was attempting to prevent the fast Paccioretty from going on a breakaway, and after watching Chara for a number of years, I have never seen him head-hunting. If he has an issue with you, he will let you know in between plays.
I would think that restricting a team’s cap space by the difference in the suspended player’s salary and the injured players salary is a good idea, especially for the playoffs. That would certainly help to disincentivize teams from supporting players who regularly make head-hunting plays, and would put the offending team at a disadvantage as well. It could work well in the regular season too, and while that could end up being harsh, it would certainly cut down on this crap.
As an aside, I haven’t noticed Rome to be an especially dirty player (but Burrows, Lapierre, The sisters, Bieksa, Torres, all dive chirp and cheap shot way more than is usual) but that was pretty damn close to head-hunting and should have had a stronger penalty just to stop this B.S. Too many good players have been hurt in this way.
We have players who make questionable hits as well (I’m looking at you Lucic, Marchand) but most of the time, the bruins make a stupid hit, get suspended, and modify their behavior. Additionally, these were borderline hits for the most part, not head-hunters, though Lucic has had a few that come close, much to my chagrin.
RD: Exactly
One of the biggest problems with getting rid of serious injuries in the NHL is the player’s association, who are their own worst enemy. They formally grieve every single suspension. Also, the NHL looked into eliminating hard-capped (plastic) on the elbows and shoulders, and the NHL PA equipment representatives to the review committee were against it (why, I have no idea, and it was never explained). Personally, I believe the hard-capped equipment is a big, big, big part of the problem. This new equipment makes players feel like robo-cop.
Shanimal, why are you advocating “let the bodies hit the floor” brand of hockey when Horton was severely concussed?
Earlier this week other fans were calling for quiet room hockey and look who ended up in the quiet room? Guess what? you can’t have it both ways and this is what frustrates me sometimes with fans who have anger issues.
It always seems like they want to see heads get ripped off, as long is it’s not their own players. And then, when 3 of their players have severe concussions, they STILL don’t care and call for headshot hockey.
It just shows you couldn’t give a flying f* about the welfare of your own players as long as it satisfies your lust for violence on the ice.
Get help.
After the B’s are done playing “Let the bodies hit the floor” (drowning pool) on the Canucks tonight it will be clearer to you all that Rome blew the Canucks chance to win the Cup with his cheap shot on Horton.
He must be a cheap player if he threw such a classless cheap shot!
It can’t be a North South hit unless he was right in front of Horton (he wasn’t).
Bruins in 6…Thanks to cheap shot-er Rome!
why can’t the nhl be more like the nfl? intense competition and even extra curricular punching and jabbing is tolerated to a point, but the nfl does a better job of cracking down on intent to injure, and delivering a severe punchout to an opponent is simply not allowed. maybe someone can explain why severely punching out another player is somehow different from intent to injure. neither belong in the nhl and the league would be better without it.
..
One more thing from another slant – And I’m not directing this at you Matt K – But I think the media is doing us all a serious injustice with their headlines on this event. I fully understand that we are limited with what we know about this injury, but by continuing with headlines that Horton will miss the remainder of the playoffs, we are severely underestimating the severity of this hit and this injury. For crying out loud – a sprained ankle would have caused Horton to miss the rest of the playoffs. This injury could very well end his career! To post headlines that he’ll miss 4 games leaves most of the sporting world (non-hockey fans) scratching their heads wondering what’s the big deal?! This was a serious hit – and it is certainly a serious injury.
I love the comment that the Sedins don’t dive or fake injuries. My favorite, hands down
Ryder’s hit on that random TB guy is further proof of how dumb the NHL is. They screwed that up (if in fact he hit the guy in the head) just like they screw all of these up. That’s why they keep happening. When it happens to Sedin tonight, I wonder if the Bruin will get 3 games, because that’s the end of the season. Morons
The connucks remind me of a team we played in Bantams. They hit our center over the head with a stick, the benches cleared and the opposing team ran across the road with their skates on. As long as our Bruins are physical the connucks will flop and dive. One of the twinkies loved being in the penalty box for third period. It was a little harsh for him on the ice.
Rome’s gone. Deserved suspension. Not a dirty player.
Surely, so did Ryder.
Chara’s hit on Pacioretti was fine, if ugly. Not a dirty player.
Go Sox, go Nucks!
GR90:
Well said, and you are right on both points. One thing that I feel the need to add though is regarding the “check” by Thomas. It was perfectly legal; but you very rarely ever see it because it’s generally accepted by all players that goalie’s DON”T check players since Rule 43.1 was introduced, whereas goalies are never “fair game” whether they are in the crease or not. Really, if it’s completely hands-off the goalie at all times, regardless of position on the ice (except for very minor incidental contact), is it fair that a goalie should be entitled to check a player? There’s nothing in the rules against it, but there should be.
Steve ALOT of the guys/girls on here are Canadians and Bruins fans. I would go as far as saying there could possibly be an equal amount or more Boston Bruins fans in Canada as there are in the US.
To the guy who said Horton skated into Rome: There was over a second in between Horton releasing the puck and Rome hitting him. As a player, Horton is entitled to his ice, as is Rome- but when Rome stepped up and leveled Horton, as opposed to turning and picking up his man as the play was on the other side of the ice, THAT is interference. Blatantly late and intentional. This guy obviously didn’t know how to channel the emotion and intensity of the game and interpreted its escalation as a pissing match.He decided to show how tough he was on a susceptible and unsuspecting player. Rome was caught up in the moment.
As for Thomas’ hit on Sedin, he hit him when he was in possession of the puck. Sedin was dropping the puck from his hand to his stick, and Thomas was legally entitled to lay a hit because of Sedin’s proximity to the puck.
Vancouver fans may go with what their players said- that the hit was “clean” and “unfortunate”. Except the difference is that the players said it to support their teammate, not because they truly believe the hit was legal.
Honestly, can’t we all just enjoy hockey? There have been people on this forum trying to use accusations of drug usage, the economy, lack of physical attractiveness, and other nonsensical insults to leverage their team over their opponent. It’s ridiculous. One city will triumph in the end, and the other will be disappointed. But the beautiful thing is that we all get to come back next year and do this again.
Mike Silver:
So I assume that if Rome should have gotten “half-a-season” for a (1 second) late hit (I would have no problem with a 10 game suspension), then Michael Ryder should have gotten two and a half seasons for his (5 second) late hit on Jones; especially since he leapt a foot into the air to nail Jones? Some of you Bruins fans have very, very selective memories.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxLs-g9lPEc&feature=youtu.be
SteveM.: Yes, I guess we shouldn’t be on here; it’d be much more fun for you guys to talk into an echo-chamber and sing from the same song-book all day, rather than have some intelligent debate from people that understand and actually play the game. So sorry we can’t all be Jerry Springers.
What is it with Canadians and having nothing better to do than bitch on another teams blog? I thought the Habs fans were bad, but at least the two teams have a rivalry.
I can’t believe all the bitching coming from these Canucks fans. What f*ucking hypocrites.
What’s worse is that the league can’t get their sh*t together when it comes to late hits. Only a sadist would want to see a player get injured, and every time I see a late hit this this one or the one on Kariya it makes me want to change the channel. I can only imagine what a casual fan would think.
If the NHL ever wants to get out of the basement of North American sports, they need to end these kinds of open ice hits. People love the emotion of the sport, the physical play, the fighting… not the concussed players flat on their backs on the ice.
4 games is an embarrassment to the sport. Make an example out of a nothing player like Rome. He should have gotten half a season. That would end these b*ullshit plays pretty damn quick.
Forget the play on the ice. What happens to Horton after hockey? That’s what people should be thinking about.
And furthermore, the Eager hit on Sedin in the WCF was worth a total of 2 minutes and no disciplinary action. The Jamie McGinn hit on Rome ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAKE27l7ZzA&feature=related ) also got no disciplinary action. And the Michael Ryder hit on Jones was more blatant than Rome’s late hit and also got nothing. My point is that all of these hits (including Rome’s) should have resulted in suspensions but there is NO consistency from the disciplinary committee. If you’re going to deal with late and dangerous hits, the extent of the resulting injury should not, and can’t enter into the equation, period. As for the Burrow’s bite, the ref was right when Bergeron was showing him his fingers and he said,” yeah, so how exactly did your fingers get in his mouth in the first place”.
Does anyone remember Chara dirty hit on Pacioretty and not get suspended, what a joke, Boston lacks memories. wonder if the fan supported Chara or Paciorett. Horton skates ringht into a guys standing on tthe blue line, not charging and laying a hit against a stanchion!!
Perfectly said RD. As for the Sedins, they aren’t the toughest guys on the ice, but they certainly aren’t divers and anyone who says otherwise is just ignorant of their play. Case in point, I’d like to see anyone here take a hit from Eager like this and pop-back-up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEyR6NTG_IE&feature=related
The name calling is so childish.
Despite their play style, I’m sure the majority of you guys would never say anything face to face with an NHL player. Sure, the Sedins aren’t Thornton but they take NHL level abuse for 84+ games year in year out. Any guy at that level is tough as nails.
Hell, I saw Guy LaFleur the other day and he’s still in shape and looks ready to play. Enough of this ridiculing pro athletes’ toughness from what are likely doughy sofa warriors.
The bottom line is the penalty and the result of the hit should not be connected. If the league wants to stop shots to the head, then it must get serious. These hits should be double digit game suspensions, without pay, and a massive fine, like 25k, 50k or 100k. Players, especially journeyman losers like Rome, will stop real quick.
But the league won’t do that. Hell, they didn’t suspend a guy who bit another guy, so what can you expect.
Ryder probably should have been suspended
Pretty sure these Van dolts would think a little different if, say, someone were to drive his shoulder into a Sedin Queen’s head and knocked him out and maybe ended his career.
The Sedins should STFU
I can’t wait to beat you douchebags
KaranM – don’t see a comparison at all. Ryder shielded himself and tried to avoid hurting Jones. Rome put everything he had into a shoulder to head hit. Not even close. You want to cry for justice. This is one of the cheapest shots ever – and hardly punished. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z1vJrIAg-0
KaranM, it looks to me like Jones was watching the puck instead of paying attention to where Ryder was. See how easy it is to blame the victim!
Just to point out the inconsistencies in how bad he league is – please explain why this hit didn’t get a 4 game suspension – or even a 1 game for that matter?
http://youtu.be/nxLs-g9lPEc
Just for the record, Steamer, both AF and Sedin received 10min misconducts for the ‘scrum’. So the refs did do something about it. Whether that was the right call, wrong call, or not severe enough of one is obviously worthy of debate. I personally hate all the diving and embellishment going on in this series because it makes me feel like I’m watching bad soccer, so for that, I thought Ms. Sedin deserved an additional minor. Never realized how much the twins loved to dive and flop all over the place… disappointing.
Anyways, I agree that there must be something going on between AV and Ballard behind closed doors because how else do you explain a $4mil player sitting for so long? I’m sure he’ll be an upgrade over Rome (that’s not asking much from him), but its still a mystery if Ballard will actually be the one to step in. In your opinion, would Vigneault really turn to someone like Tanev instead?
George,
The Ballard question is good… Ballard has played inconsistently but he has the skills…. I think something happend between him and AV nothing has been said publicly because he has been in the doghouse for awhile . IMO i think Ballard is a upgrade from Rome. We’ll see where his confidence is at…
Nifty,
I’ve thought about the roster spot idea, and I guess it could work. Feels a little too much like a soccer red card for my taste, though.
Enough of this garbage.
I have a real question for Canuck fans on here. Is Ballard good enough to fill in on defense? Why has he been passed over for playing time?
George,
I am talking about the Tim Thomas hit during the actual game. The ference hit was during one of the Scrums where the ref’s call nothing on both sides and is stupid hockey. Both teams have been taking Liberties and the slashing and stickwork is bs. He didn’t flop cause he got hurt. He flopped because well how many times can you get slashed without something being done… Oh yeah before Spangler and Mk talk about the Sedin’s stickwork… A slash or poke is way different from a hook and lifting the stick.
Taking away that roster spot is one way to make the suspension have more effect.
wow…they really gave him 4 games???
The chara hit on pacioretty was way worse….
The league really does give us preferential treatment.
One thing that I think all of these discussions are missing is a sense of the competitive parity. The playoffs are different from the regular season because you are playing against the same team *every other night.* In the regular season, if I hurt your best player, you get worse but I don’t really benefit from it because you’re going to be playing some other team next tomorrow. In the playoffs, however, I hurt your best player, my team benefits next game.
And when you’re down to the cup finals and there is no more tomorrow, why not trade a depth defensemen like Rome for Horton?
Since Horton is gone for the series, I think it is totally fair that Rome is gone. Hell, I think it would be fair if Vancouver had to sit out another $3.25m in salary for the remainder of the series to compensate Boston for the disparity in talent lost. Never going to happen, of course, but that may at least put the teams at parity.
The n.h.l. let this free-fall from game-1. Burrows childish act should have been dealt with on the ice. Unsportsmanlike conduct, see you later. The league should have then suspended the seal beater for 2 games. Now the clowns are running the circus.
Steamer
No whining, no slashing, just flopping to the ice holding his head after being hit cleanly in the shoulder by Ference. BTW Thomas should have gotten a penalty because IMO that was close enough to interference and I wouldn’t want Luongo doing that to the Bruins.
You’ll find Steamer that I’m pretty objective, I even had a nice chat with your buddy Snerd the other day.
I’m really hoping Shanahan can implement the kind of consistency the league has desperately needed for player discipline for a long time now.
As far as I’m concerned – If Thorton says Rome is a good guy, then he’s a good guy.
But – that good guy made a really stupid play. Nucks are whining that it was bang bang – I don’t give a damn. Players are going to have to learn this is not the way to hit opposing players any longer. Lower your shoulder and hit him in the mid-section. Put two fists to his chest… but you can’t lift your shoulder into ANYONE’s head. Those kind of hits are illegal when late – so stop delivering them.
It must really suck for Rome to sit the next 4. He may never see a finals again – but Horton could be done for good. He could have ended up a vegetable.. and then the next guy.. and then the next guy. It has to stop.
Its called a pun Steamer
Scared + Scandanavian = Scaredanavian
George and Hungup..
What is a scardanavian.. Is that Boston Slang or American drivel… Please speak English…
Didn’t your goalie TT get a clean hit on him. No whining after no slashing, he got up and skated away. Good hockey play. Period.
Karan … trust me when I say most B’s fans have little in the way of kind words for the NHL disciplinary process.
The problem most Canucks fans (and quite honestly all hockey fans SHOULD have) is the inconsistency in suspensions in this league. The outcome of the hit (i.e. injury) is not supposed to be part of the decision and yet they’ve changed the standard again. Why didn’t Eager get a suspension on his blindside, late hit on Sedin??
As a Canucks fan I wouldn’t have had a problem with a 1-2 game suspension, but 4 is too much especially given all the other crap decisions as it relates to suspensions.
As fans of the game, you guys should be disgusted by the league as much as we are.
They keep saying North/South as though it had anything to do with it. It was a late hit directly to the head of a vulnerable player resulting in serious injury. Murphy EXPLICITLY stated rule 48 didn’t come into play … ie North/South or East/West is irrelevant, it was a dirty late hit.
I do think it was a mistake and believe Rome to be sincere in his apology. That said, it was a dangerous and reckless hit. Clearly the league is all over the map so someone is going to cry foul.
i hope in game 4 that the sedin sisters get one of these clean hits that henrik is talking about. the garbage coming out of the queens’ mouths just adds fuel to the fire.
I’m sure they would feel the same way if Siedenberg did that to one of the Scaredanavians