Brad Jones, IHL Vice President of Hockey Operations, had this to say about Brad MacMillan's five-game suspenion:
"Brad is not a dirty player, but the fact of the matter is it was a clear blow to the head delivered with some force. It was the severity of the impact. It wasn't a glancing blow where the elbow hit the shoulder and then moved up. It was clear the elbow was raised and it clearly got him square.
"Another thing was that when the hit was being delivered, a lot of players will lower their stick to drop their shoulder and deliver the blow, but he drops his stick to get his elbow up and hits him in the head. If he had hit him with his shoulder, we'd have no issue, but he got him with the elbow and there is obvious follow through. It was one of those hits that I feel we have to protect the players from.
"Do I feel he intended to elbow him in the head? No, but he did hit him in the head, and I didn't feel it was necessary."
As for the length of the suspension, Jones said he felt five games was justified after earlier this year he gave out three-game suspensions to a player who used an incidental head butt in a fight and to another player for a stick infraction. Jones said it was also comparable to suspensions this year in the NHL for similar fouls.
MacMillan will have to miss the Komets' next five games.
Comments
The video is inconclusive, it is too far away to determine. You can't tell if the arm made impact or the body impact caused the head to hit the glass. Hockey helmets are terrible and have no padding for collisions.
I saw two players going for a loose puck and colliding.
The 5 minute major and the game misconduct was enough. This video does not warrant a 5 game suspension.
Can I hang out on this blog? I don't feel worthy enough to be on Cohn's. Somebody needs to get over himself. Way to go "Mr. Exclusive". I don't see Blake patting himself on the back for predicting a suspension. Unbelievable.
All i gotta say is, that is not the same view I had of the elbow...i agree with Burgee that angle is inconclusive...I wish there was another angle from behind the net...
Welcome BAM24.
The video is inconclusive, but it is nice to finally see a video of the hit. I figured that he would have only gotten two or three games, but that is because in my own opinion the league has been very soft on enforcing rules this season, and handing out punishment.
Its going to stink skating a man short for five games, but hopefully things will work out. Time to drop it and move on in my opinion.
The video is inconclusive?I think it's conclusive that we've got a large number of homers in the house.I like the Komets just as much,if not more,than most of you posters/readers but that being said it was clearly a blow to the head.Watch Mac's left hand.He makes no attempt to play the puck with his stick.Instead he throws a forearm shiver.I was big fan of Brad before the hit and i will continue to be.He lost his head for the first time i've seen all year,this is not a pattern.It happened,Brad was suspended,this has already been way more of a distraction then need be.There's hockey to play and the team should be focused on the on-ice stuff not this unfortunate event
I value all the opinions here but this is what the nerd in me just did to try and get a better look. I grabbed the laptop, 25 ft lan cord, 15 ft extension cord, folding chair and hooked it up to the 42 inch in the living room(this is how I B2 games as well, got the cpu to tv cord at radio shack), I watched the video several times again, pausing often and The video is clearly inconclusive. No lawyer would take this to court unless you prepaid him in full to go for a suspension, there is far too much reasonable doubt, look at how many people are on both sides of the issue. If I were a member of the jury I could not convict based on the video and the comments about it from credible sources, I can not clearly see or distinguish these statements being made, I saw a collision.
Now on to hits topics, congratulations to Nick Boucher the BEST goaltender in the league by the numbers and performance!
Congrats to the king of KO 3 game point streak with a couple of fights thrown in for good measure.
Hi BAM24. :) Yeah, a lot of people make it their mission to make others feel they aren't worthy to post over there. But if you're talking about Justin... c'mon. They were laughing at him and saying he was crazy to think he saw something on the replay that no one else saw. I think he deserves some rub in time. I know I've been wrong about enough things to enjoy a good rub in when I'm right. Who doesn't?
The ref. Mr. Weilker said it (the hit) wasn't a elbow as much as a straight arm to me after the game. He also said since the hit resulted in injury he must call the penalty. The injury occurred when he hit his head on the ice. Not once but twice. Watch his head bounce. He said that the rule includes injury as a result of the hit. He wasn't sure that the hit caused the injury. I think we are all making a mountain out of a molehill. It is what it is. Let's get one more tonight in PH. Super big game for a Tuesday. If we have ever played well their we need to tonight.
Wow, jones didn't bring up the player hitting his head on the ice but that is why the ref gave such a harsh penalty during the game. Kind of sounds like jones didn't talk to the referre, this keeps gettoing more interesting.