GDT: Czech Republic vs. Finland, Feb. 18, 9.00 PM Torino, 3.00 PM EST

[MartinFr]

People go "after a player like that" every night in the NHL. You hit when you can, and if you can lay a good, legal hit on a key player, you do it. Especially if that player is known to be scared of physical contact.

What Ruutu did was right. He wanted to get Jagr pissed off. He probably would have been, if his ancient helmet had not cut his scalp. It is NOT Jarkko's fault. He followed every rule there is.

There are more easier way to piss Jagr off than knock him into the boards when he wasn't ready for it, but I'd guess that is just the smooth Ruutu style.

And please, this is not the NHL. In NHL they go after players so they wont have to face him the following week, and how big is the odds that Finland will play against the Czech Republic once again during this tournament?

 

[dougd]

everyone's already on the Ruutuu hate bandwagon

except the Finns ...

and most of Vancouver fans and those who hate him until he's on their team. Then, he automatically becomes awesome , especially after he goads an opposing player into a penalty while wearing the quintessential disturber smirk.

 

[psycho_dad*]

Boarding doesn't have anything to do with how far from the boards you are,

Yes it does. The whole damn rule was implemented to avoid more paralyses..more neck and spine injuries. You need to be considerably away from the boards for it to be boarding. You need like 0,5 meters or 1 meter from the board to make it especially dangerous. Jagr is glued to the boards, so it is NOT boarding. If that is a boarding, ANY bodycheck along the boards should be banned. And then we are talking about women hockey. In mens hockey, what Ruutu did was perfectly legal. You will not find a rule on the IIHF rulebook that disagrees with that.

You guys should be defending Ruutu and calling out this **** ref, not whining about him playing hockey.

 

[007]

OK, I'll admit that the YLE replays which I have seen now make me a bit more equivocal than I had been before. I had thought that Ruutu took more steps towards Jagr, but he was still carrying a lot of speed, and I still think that Ruutu lined Jagr up and ran him. In the heat of a game, that can happen, and it's unfortunate, but I still think Ruutu, as the guy throwing the check, is responsible for the injury. The announcers sure weren't lauding Jarkko on a great job.

That said, I take back what I said about Jarkko going head-hunting, and that's all I'm going to say on the topic anymore.

 

[Sonic Death Monkey]

Ther is no minimum mesurement to call a boarding or not. Sure he is not more then maybe 10-20 cm from the boards, BUT the way he goes into it is the main thing here, he hits the boards violently with his head (I know, wearing a lousy helmet). And therefore It is a boarding. I don't think that any bodycheck against the board is boarding, but the way he was hit justifies a boarding call.. I also think that the Swedish Ref was good all game long.

 

[psycho_dad*]

That said, I take back what I said about Jarkko going head-hunting, and that's all I'm going to say on the topic anymore.

You are trying to say that you will not comment further, because you would have to say Ruutu was clean.

Mertaranta (the finnish TV narrator) was calling it a cheapshot or whatever. Mertaranta is an idiot, and has no clue about hockey rules. He creates great feeling, but his knowledge for rules is horrible.

 

[psycho_dad*]

I also think that the Swedish Ref was good all game long.

Heheh...even on that call on Lydman? When Czech got that 5 on 3 powerplay and scored?

If that was not a horrible dive, then Toni Lydman is the secret identity of Superman.

 

[Sonic Death Monkey]

Well apart from that call

 

[MartinFr]

Heheh...even on that call on Lydman? When Czech got that 5 on 3 powerplay and scored?

If that was not a horrible dive, then Toni Lydman is the secret identity of Superman.

so? You got that one back when there was a little catfight infront of the Czech goal, you actually scored on that PP.

 

[007]

You are trying to say that you will not comment further, because you would have to say Ruutu was clean.

Mertaranta (the finnish TV narrator) was calling it a cheapshot or whatever. Mertaranta is an idiot, and has no clue about hockey rules. He creates great feeling, but his knowledge for rules is horrible.

Don't put words in my mouth.

I am saying that I don't want to discuss this any further because quite frankly, I've made up my mind, you've made up yours and this is getting very boring. I think it was a borderline hit at best and a cheap play, but you're not going to move me further than that.

 

[WILDTATE10]

Is there any doubt what the best line in the tournament is?

I would take:
Hossa Demitra Gaborik
over
Selanne Koivu Lehtenin
In any league or tournement

 

[Meat Wave]

I would take:
Hossa Demitra Gaborik
over
Selanne Koivu Lehtenin
In any league or tournement

Considering the wonderful chemestry that the Finnish 1st line has going, I don't think that would be an unanimous choice.

 

[psycho_dad*]

Don't put words in my mouth.

I am saying that I don't want to discuss this any further because quite frankly, I've made up my mind, you've made up yours and this is getting very boring. I think it was a borderline hit at best and a cheap play, but you're not going to move me further than that.

All I want is that people are judging this by the rules of hockey, not their own sense of "whats right".

In my opinion nobody should get hit, and everyone should try to mind their surroundings and be polite...but in a hockey game they can bump into eachother if it is within the rules. Ruutu's hit on Jagr broke absolutely no rules and you can check it in here ( later in the video, you get slow motion etc.) http://akastreaming.svtiwebb.se/broadplay/broad_video.asx?gjmf=2006-0218-jagr&cp=21881

You can see clearly it is not dirty. It is just a big hit on a star player, who unfortunately got cut by his stupid choise of helmet. There is NOTHING else to it.

 

[psycho_dad*]

I would take:
Hossa Demitra Gaborik
over
Selanne Koivu Lehtenin
In any league or tournement

Congratulations. You are one of the 0,5% minority!

 

[teme]

Good game, glad Finland got the win, the Jere-Saku-Teemu line looked great tonight, wonder if its possible for them to set it up another gear still? Credit to Jere and Selanne for getting the goals, but just thought i'd give props to Saku for doing a few things out there which really helped his team which no-one seems to have given him credit for here.

firstly, great work along the boards all night, good to see all that hard work capitalised by his linemates. Secondly, although i haven't seen the relevant stats yet, I can't recall an occassion in the game tonight where Saku lost a faceoff, i'm sure it must have happened on a couple of occassions but it looked like he won the vast majority of them tonight.

Anyways, well done Finland, i hope they get far and some more of their games are shown over here. Also, hope Jagr will be ok, be a shame if he can't finish the tournament.

Yes, the faceoffs were the key along with Niittymäki, at one time they showed it, the stat was something like 45 to 15. What makes this even weirder is that traditionally Team Finland has been bad in faceoffs.

 

[Jussi]

Congratulations. You are one of the 0,5% minority!

He is, however, in the majority of posters who can't spell names/words correctly.

 

[MeN_Ace2]

It really doesn't matter. Ruutu will pay and if he doesn't and Jagr misses any time due to this injury, I'm pretty sure the Rangers will make Vancouver pay when we play them. Either way Ruutu is paying.

You mean like this? http://www.braziler.com/kuvia/fight.gif

 

[Makarov]

Secondly, although i haven't seen the relevant stats yet, I can't recall an occassion in the game tonight where Saku lost a faceoff, i'm sure it must have happened on a couple of occassions but it looked like he won the vast majority of them tonight.

Its interesting you bring that up...

A couple of years ago, Keith Primeau (who used to be among the premiere face-off men in the NHL), said Saku was arguably the toughest player in the NHL to take a face-off against since his hands were lightening quick...

I do think his skill has declined since his comeback from cancer, but he remains very effetive...

Spacek should have submarined Koivu - just like he did to Ritchie - to even the score!

Beleive you me, NO ONE on that team even once thought about going after Koivu...

Saku is one of the most lovable and respected players in the NHL; had Spacek gone after Koivu, I can bet Rucinsky would have jumped Spacek...

 

[abev]

All I want is that people are judging this by the rules of hockey, not their own sense of "whats right".

In my opinion nobody should get hit, and everyone should try to mind their surroundings and be polite...but in a hockey game they can bump into eachother if it is within the rules. Ruutu's hit on Jagr broke absolutely no rules and you can check it in here ( later in the video, you get slow motion etc.) http://akastreaming.svtiwebb.se/broadplay/broad_video.asx?gjmf=2006-0218-jagr&cp=21881

You can see clearly it is not dirty. It is just a big hit on a star player, who unfortunately got cut by his stupid choise of helmet. There is NOTHING else to it.

I cant figure out why you keep soapboxing this view?

Too bad we aren't talking about an NHL game. Olympic rosters aren't populated with goons and theres no place for that type of hit in the Olympics. Yeah, that "type" of hit. He wasnt going for the puck, he was going for Jagr. Tell us to watch the replay all you want, then tell us what we are supposed to think.

Makes you wonder when a player goes after another player with little or no chance of retribution. And makes you wonder even more when someone has to go out of their way to stick up for them and throwing around stuff like "He followed every rule there is".

Players can still follow the rules and can still be unethical. Ruutu can do what he wants: legal or illegal, but dont tell me there was nothing wrong with it.

 

[psycho_dad*]

Players can still follow the rules and can still be unethical. Ruutu can do what he wants: legal or illegal, but dont tell me there was nothing wrong with it.

I will tell you there was nothing wrong with it. Hockey rules apply to each and every player. If Jaromir Jagr would have made that hit on Jarkko Ruutu, nobody would have bothered to complain.

Hockey has rules, and Ruutu broke none of those rules in his hit. Except the one saying "you cant hit a star, or make a star bleed". The hit itself was clean, there is absolutely no denying that because we can all see the video. The only reason why people are reacting so hard is that Jagr is a star and Ruutu is a known cheap shot artist. This time he did not deliver a cheapshot, he just hit a star and followed the rules. The ref messed up and reacted like some of you posters.....if a star bleeds, there has to be a penalty.

There was absolutely no ground for even a 2 minute minor, but this Pejorative Slur sent Ruutu out with a 5+20.

 

[Khelvan]

Hockey has rules, and Ruutu broke none of those rules in his hit.

Serious question: Have you ever played organized hockey as an adult?

 

[Canuck21t]

Aaah.. This tournament reminds me how good looking Sccandinavian women are..

You have seen the Swedish women hockey team did you?

 

[Canuck21t]

The thing is...hockey is a physical sport. I absolutely hate players getting injured, but on the other hand, if it is within the rules, it is ok.

People might DIE because of hits, but if they are clean hits, then the dead person knew the risks. If it's dirty, it should be taken to court.

What Ruutu did was a clean hit with unfortunate results. Still, it should not reward a penalty, because all he did was play hockey.

You're so biased. If it was Bertuzzi doing that to Selanne, you would have called for a hanging.

 

[Steveorama]

It really doesn't matter. Ruutu will pay and if he doesn't and Jagr misses any time due to this injury, I'm pretty sure the Rangers will make Vancouver pay when we play them. Either way Ruutu is paying.

Given the score the last time the Rangers played the Canucks (at MSG), I would think the Rags would be more concerned with winning the game than going after a 4th line player on the Canucks.

 

[Canuck21t]

When there's a team on this tournament that includes ref attackers and career enders like Nash and Bertuzzi, that's not really possible...

I'll give you Bertuzzi but you have to get over Nash. I saw Jagr intentionally push a linesman at the last Olympics and nobody said a bleep.