I've seen some things but that was some serious bs

[knvs]

I don't think anyone is really defending what he did here. What he did was cheating and he got away with it. I don't think its as bad as intentionally trying to injure another player or taking a cheap shot like some players in the league, after all he did play the puck and not hook/slash/trip anyone (sarcasm) What I'm tired of hearing is all the people saying he should be band for the playoffs or the kings should be given the win/point or division title despite the outcome of the last game. There was no guarantee that if Clowe didn't touch the puck, that it would have been a goal for the Kings and that they would have won the game....

A fine might be suitable, an amendment to the rulebook ala Avery rule might be called to change.

[ShellSh0cked]

The only good thing that may come out of this moving forward is more video ref/review in the rules. Missed calls and uneven enforcement leaves people who don't know too much about the sport wondering wth is going on ("is that allowed? I thought if you hit someone from behind it was a penalty" etc)

[Gators76]

It was stupid, ballsy & funny. Should have been penalized but the linesman that saw it can't call it. Nothing "dirty" about it. Want to talk about dirty, watch Sidney and friends get away with everything in the book.

[NoLuongo]

[Threeleggedyoyo]

I lol'd. I admit to being a totally biased Sharks fan.

The amazing thing to me is that he thought he had any chance of getting away with it... and then did. In my mind he must have thought he was stopping a likely breakaway for a penalty, which isn't an uncommon decision among D-men. I don't feel like it's much more dirty than the usual "good penalty" situation.

I think it was a foolish decision on his part since it would have lead to a 5-on-3, but not a physically dangerous one. Then again, if he knew he was going to get away with it, then he's some kind of genius.

As far as supplemental discipline, it's a missed minor penalty. I don't expect it will require any more attention. A suspension seems like overkill when we consider that suspensions invariably involve dangerous plays. A fine, maybe.

~Brent

[RollrGoal]

Originally Posted by Gators76

It was stupid, ballsy & funny. Should have been penalized but the linesman that saw it can't call it. Nothing "dirty" about it. Want to talk about dirty, watch Sidney and friends get away with everything in the book.

I don't see how it's not "dirty". It's a blatant infraction of the rules (although it was funny and pretty incredible that he got away with it) in the same light as a guy that hauls down someone on a semi-breakaway or a 2 on 1 to prevent a goal (except now there's always a penalty shot that can be awarded). I guess maybe a better term would be "cheap". Dirty usually refers to the rough stuff that happens that the refs don't see (for example the whole finger biting incident from last year's cup final)

I guess the outrage is really at how it wasn't caught by the refs. Was it unfair? Yes. Was it caught and punished? No. That's unfortunately the way it went down. Does it piss people off that it was unfair and wasn't punished? Sure.

The thing I don't get is how you can compare something like this to "Sidney and friends" and what you think they might be getting away with. I sure don't see them playing the puck from the bench. I'm pretty sure there's a separate thread for whining about Sidney Crosby. Sorry, end rant.

[streetfighter35]

I think there has to be something said for player respect. Yes no one was hurt by the play however it does not mean you can come off the bench (lean over ) and deliberately touch the puck so that the opponent loses control.

It was done deliberately...and some have said it is a dirty play. Is it okay for someone to hit a home run with a corked bat? How about vaseline on the hand when pitching to get out of a bases loaded jam?


these are examples of cheating and just because it wasn't caught by the Refs doesn't make it okay, i thought the game was better then all the other cheating sports?


Blame the Refs...there the ones that should also take the blame.

[goober35]

Great article on the subject:

Ryane Clowe Plays Puck From Bench: Cheating or Gamesmanship? | The Hockey Writers

The article goes into some other little examples of things players and coaches do to get an edge. When I was living down in FLA, my adult league team picked up a kid who was home for the summer. He played D3 NCAA up in Mass somewhere. If we needed a goal and he was on the bench, sometimes he would sneak onto the ice as a 6th man. The first time he did it we asked him wtf he was thinking when he jumped, he said he thought we needed an extra attacker. He talked about his college team doing it all the time.

Sometimes it's a calculated risk. If you get away with it, you get away with it. If you get caught, hey, you still negated an oddman rush, and you take your chances on the PK.

Illegal?...Yep. Dirty?....come on. Supplemental discipline?.....That's a slippery slope. Is someone going to scrutinize every game every night in the league and hand out supplementary discipline for every minor penalty not called? How would you penalize it? A suspension?? How would you feel if a player from your team was suspended for game 4 of a Stanley Cup final game because he tripped a guy behind the play? Would you asses a 2 min penalty to the player at the start of the next game?? Sounds silly to me.

[Celtic]

So should we expect that whenever an odd-man break or a partial breakaway starts in front of an opponent's bench, that the puck carrier is going to get stick-checked or clothes-lined by someone as a calculated risk?

They should up it to a 5-minute major for unsportsmanlike conduct/ delay of game and nip this in the bud before it catches on that there are more defenders than the ones that are on the ice.

[exturkconner]

It's a bench minor. It's too many men on the ice. When your stick touches the playing surface wether you are on the ice or not you are an extra man and you are playing the puck. I could see this being a major as it was flagrant. So yeah this isn't the Avery situation where a new rule needs to be created for something disgraceful. The rule is already here.

Suspension seems just out of the question. A league max fine while just a slap on the wrist seems like the proper step.

Because lets be frank here. It is not dirty. He didn't do anything that was going to hurt another player. If we define this as "dirty" just because he did something illegal in such an obvious way then all fighters are dirty. Every d-man who hauls a guy down so he doesn't tap an empty netter is dirty. We don't want to open up that can of worms. It was not dirty it was an illegal play and it should have gotten a penalty. It did not but that's on the officials. I am sure Clowe was willing to take the penalty to break up the high quality scoring chance. Again why not? D-men take penalties to stop odd man rushes, or breakaways, or down and out goal open tap ins all the time. It's really no different.

[Clyde]

Calling this dirty when Bertuzzi is still in the league is pretty lame IMO.

I think the refs who missed the call should be out of the playoffs though. Missing something this bad should have consequences.

[goober35]

Originally Posted by NHLAlum Target

Calling this dirty when Bertuzzi is still in the league is pretty lame IMO.

I think the refs who missed the call should be out of the playoffs though. Missing something this bad should have consequences.

This is a comment I can agree with.

[madguitarist]

Originally Posted by NHLAlum Target

Calling this dirty when Bertuzzi is still in the league is pretty lame IMO.

I think the refs who missed the call should be out of the playoffs though. Missing something this bad should have consequences.

^This. To me, dirty involves actually hurting someone. Sure, this was totally drop-in and unacceptable, but to compare this to things like Marchment's knee on knee hits, or Bertuzzi's hit on that Moore kid, is a bit absurd.

I'd like to see at least a fine out of it, because players on the bench, should not be involved physically in the play in any form while they're there. However, a suspension would be overkill.

[toddamus]

The play was stupid but the officiating was worse. You'd expect this to be called in beer leagues let alone the NHL. I'm sure those refs got chewed out by their supes after the game and that this will be documented in their performance assessments. Clowe showed his true colors on that play. You don't do that unless you have a serious character flaw. If I saw one of my teammates do that I'd be pissed, I hope Clowe got chewed out by his teammates and coaches. Fortunately this play won't stop the kings from making the playoffs, where they finish in the standings rests on them.

Ultimately this one was on the refs and the simply blew the call.

[Dolanster]

Originally Posted by toddamus

Fortunately this play won't stop the kings from making the playoffs, where they finish in the standings rests on them.

And thankfully where one finishes in the PAC doesn't really matter (who do you want to play, Van, StL, Chi, Det? Pick your poison). Imagine if that happened in tonight's game however, and the loser got eliminated. What if that happened in a series game 7 and the offender's team won in OT? Imagine if a Bruin did this to a Canadian in a game 7 and the Habs got eliminated, there would be rioting in the streets of Montreal. I think it's a miss for the league to not do anything about it supplementally, which is pretty much the same as just pretending it didn't happen. Other pro leagues would react differently.