Islanders Point Blank: Laich thinks Viz hit was a "Good" penalty to take.

[MatthewBarnabysTears]

The Laich quote floored me. Yeah, I understand that intellectually nothing he said is wrong (although a lot of the Caps excuses seem to be based on their belief Wilson never left his feet, which is wrong). But it seems to be breaking some kind of code to admit your competitor being hurt is a good thing. Really rubs me the wrong way, even if it's what anyone would feel anyway.

 

[BroadwayJay*]

The Laich quote floored me. Yeah, I understand that intellectually nothing he said is wrong (although a lot of the Caps excuses seem to be based on their belief Wilson never left his feet, which is wrong). But it seems to be breaking some kind of code to admit your competitor being hurt is a good thing. Really rubs me the wrong way, even if it's what anyone would feel anyway.

Might be the last event in the guy's career, and that is what bothers me the most.

You know, he has a career night and then the following game he gets targeted with a potentially career ending hit. It bothers me, but not enough to encourage the appearance of any facepunchers.

I want to win the series and we win the series by continuing to play better hockey than they do.

 

[Abe Vukota]

how about you play the game nerd

Thanks, Jay. I do appreciate it.

 

[Doshell Propivo]

Might be the last event in the guy's career, and that is what bothers me the most.

You know, he has a career night and then the following game he gets targeted with a potentially career ending hit. It bothers me, but not enough to encourage the appearance of any facepunchers.

I want to win the series and we win the series by continuing to play better hockey than they do.

Not to draw out this soap opera but I wonder if Laich knows (knew) about Lubo's concussion history. Also, there was no announcement made as to the status of Visnovsky (all Laich new was that he did not return to the game). I'd like to think that if someone told him that Lubo just suffered the 7th concussion of his career that Laich would have refrained from calling it a "quote unquote good penalty."

 

[Abe Vukota]

Not to draw out this soap opera but I wonder if Laich knows (knew) about Lubo's concussion history. Also, there was no announcement made as to the status of Visnovsky (all Laich new was that he did not return to the game). I'd like to think that if someone told him that Lubo just suffered the 7th concussion of his career that Laich would have refrained from calling it a "quote unquote good penalty."

I'm a Giants fan. When they played SF in the NFC Championship game, they explicitly targeted the head of a returner who had suffered multiple concussions. They succeeded. Everyone called it strategy.

If you play a guy with a concussion history, especially an easily injured guy with a concussion history, he might get another concussion. Hell, ANYONE might get hurt. But Lubo is much more likely than most, at least based on his history.

Here's a direct quote from Jacquain Williams about the Giants "give concussions" gameplan:
After the game, reporters crowded around the locker of Jacquian Williams, who'd forced the second fumble, hoping for an angle: Had the Giants noticed something about Kyle Williams's technique, some weakness in the 49ers punt-return scheme? "Nah," Williams said. "The thing is, we knew he had four concussions, so that was our biggest thing, was to take him outta the game."

One more:
Devin Thomas, the reserve wide receiver who recovered both of Kyle Williams's fumbles, was even more explicit. “He’s had a lot of concussions," Thomas told the Star-Ledger columnist Steve Politi. "We were just like, ‘We gotta put a hit on that guy.’ ... [Giants reserve safety Tyler] Sash did a great job hitting him early and he looked kind of dazed when he got up. I feel like that made a difference and he coughed it up.”

Source: http://nymag.com/daily/sports/2012/01/did-giants-strategically-concuss-kyle-williams.html

For those of you are Giants fans, I hope you protested that win and didn't enjoy the Super Bowl victory that came as a result. Apples to oranges my ass.

If we somehow end up playing the Pens and Matt Martin throws a borderline hit that knocks Crosby out, how would you feel?

 

[A Pointed Stick]

I believe it is being inferred from the idea of
playing with 6 defenders is hard
5 is even harder
and the idea of the penalty was worth it since it resulted in the Isles having to play with 5 defenders.

The original poster said the caps as a team sat down and discussed injuring our players . I have issue with that because there is no way to know that. They did sit down and discuss pounding the crap out of us every chance they had. That I know they did, 100%. The first concept leads to lawsuits. I highly doubt they rented a room at the vfw and had some formal discusion Directly talking to Injurying guys out. The concept itself defies all logic And there is no need for it.

 

[SI90]

The Laich quote floored me. Yeah, I understand that intellectually nothing he said is wrong (although a lot of the Caps excuses seem to be based on their belief Wilson never left his feet, which is wrong). But it seems to be breaking some kind of code to admit your competitor being hurt is a good thing. Really rubs me the wrong way, even if it's what anyone would feel anyway.

This is what I found most disturbing.

 

[A Pointed Stick]

This is far too logical for anyone to agree with.

Did Lawrence Taylor get told by Tuna to break Theisman's leg? Did coach sit the entire team down and tell them to injure everyone they could? Or did they simply play as hard And mean as they could because they wanted to win?

Just asking because my logic is being called out. Btw, I just saw your giants related post and agree. I don't think Wilson does anything different if it was Nelson or Tavares. The upper body is everyone's weakness.

 

[Doshell Propivo]

The original poster said the caps as a team sat down and discussed injuring our players . I have issue with that because there is no way to know that. They did sit down and discuss pounding the crap out of us every chance they had. That I know they did, 100%. The first concept leads to lawsuits. I highly doubt they rented a room at the vfw and had some formal discusion Directly talking to Injurying guys out. The concept itself defies all logic And there is no need for it.

They created a PowerPoint for it. One slide, titled "Concussion Prone" and a subheading of "take these mofos OUT" had a list of players with Lubo on top of that list.

 

[Abe Vukota]

Did Lawrence Taylor get told by Tuna to break Theisman's leg? Did coach sit the entire team down and tell them to injure everyone they could? Or did they simply play as hard And mean as they could because they wanted to win?

Just asking because my logic is being called out. Btw, I just saw your giants related post and agree. I don't think Wilson does anything different if it was Nelson or Tavares. The upper body is everyone's weakness.

Uh, what? How is your logic any part of what Mr. Wentworth or I said? I agree with his interpretation of Laich's comments. His is a logical interpretation. So I agreed. Unless you disagree with him, which it doesn't appear you do, this makes no sense.

 

[MatthewBarnabysTears]

Not to draw out this soap opera but I wonder if Laich knows (knew) about Lubo's concussion history. Also, there was no announcement made as to the status of Visnovsky (all Laich new was that he did not return to the game). I'd like to think that if someone told him that Lubo just suffered the 7th concussion of his career that Laich would have refrained from calling it a "quote unquote good penalty."

Good point. We just know too much about concussions now for someone's reaction to be "hehe, guess we roughed him up a little."

I can't speak to the past, but today, if you play hockey--or football, or any contact sport--and you don't make some effort to avoid concussing your opponents, you're a bad person. that doesn't mean you can't be as physical as the game requires, but there's no reason to go after a defenseless player not with the puck.

 

[Bexlyspeed]

Isles just need to use this as motivation to win. that will be the best revenge. if you get a chance to lay somebody out go for it, but getting over emotional will only hurt us.

look if the NHL has no problems with those comments then threre isnt anything we can do. these guys are playing to win and win at all costs. thats the playoffs.

 

[lacunacoil777]

Look it isn't earth science.The caps are desperate for a cup. Isles started the season with only 4 good defesmen. Then one gets injured with one game before the playoffs. Caps know Isles can't win a series with only two defensemen. The gun for boychuck in game one. nobody was gunning for isles defensemen like that all year. I didn't need a caps player to admit in a interview that they view taking penaties to injure islander defensemen as a good thing. I remember when tucker and Roberts and corson were theating to injure islanders I was shocked and disgusted. Ten years later I am now ok with it because ive seen it so much....when roger Clemens drilled piazza in the head that was on purpose also in case you guys didn't know.

 

[frankieboy]

Personally, I am not into trying to hurt guys, but intimidation is another thing. Get in a guys head by putting a body on him...legally...anytime he has the puck. OV could be knocked off of his game. No one has really hit him. I've only seen him hit a half-dozen times over four games, and only a few times were hard hits (by Boychuk). We need to put this guy down on the ice a few times, knock him around. The same goes for anyone else with talent on the Caps...Backstrom, Green, Kuznetsov, Johansson, etc. On OV's last goal, he was literally standing right in front of Halak and no one was trying to move him out.

 

[A Pointed Stick]

Uh, what? How is your logic any part of what Mr. Wentworth or I said? I agree with his interpretation of Laich's comments. His is a logical interpretation. So I agreed. Unless you disagree with him, which it doesn't appear you do, this makes no sense.

I thought he was disagreeing. You have successfully tied me up in an existential knot. I think my brain just exploded. I am now going to go home, watch the game, drink beer, and hope someone knocks Wilson through the boards.

 

[Abe Vukota]

I thought he was disagreeing. You have successfully tied me up in an existential knot. I think my brain just exploded. I am now going to go home, watch the game, drink beer, and hope someone knocks Wilson through the boards.

I think we're all agreeing to agree on this matter. Case closed. Mr. Wentworth better come hard as **** with the GIFs tonight.

 

[Flair19Woo]

Look it isn't earth science.The caps are desperate for a cup. Isles started the season with only 4 good defesmen. Then one gets injured with one game before the playoffs. Caps know Isles can't win a series with only two defensemen. The gun for boychuck in game one. nobody was gunning for isles defensemen like that all year. I didn't need a caps player to admit in a interview that they view taking penaties to injure islander defensemen as a good thing. I remember when tucker and Roberts and corson were theating to injure islanders I was shocked and disgusted. Ten years later I am now ok with it because ive seen it so much....when roger Clemens drilled piazza in the head that was on purpose also in case you guys didn't know.

This is a good point. With this in mind, it is surprising at how surprised the Isles players are by this type of action. Now they know that this is how teams win sometimes.

 

[Tpkc2]

When you know as a team that you can take penalties and know the team cant possibly score, why not! The Isles pp is beyond bad. Hell. I'd have my team attack, not a chance in hell the Isles score?

 

[dlawong]

There is a lesson to be learned here. Isles need to find a way to become the best PP team next season so it may discourage their opponent to play recklessly. Maybe Wilson was not targeting Lubo but he was definitely reckless. If Isles scored on that PP, then the Caps would not say that was a "good penalty" to take and this whole thing would have never bubble up.

However I did not like what Laich said in public because sports personality can have strong influence on young athletes and he may have indirectly encourage a minor to try to take out their opponent by taking a "good" penalty and give his team an edge to win, thus somehow hurt another young player badly. If you were the parent of the young boy who was injured and overheard after the game that the coach or parents of the other team talking about they won the game because of this "good" penalty, I wonder how you would feel and how you would have responded?

 

[frankieboy]

There is a lesson to be learned here. Isles need to find a way to become the best PP team next season so it may discourage their opponent to play recklessly. Maybe Wilson was not targeting Lubo but he was definitely reckless. If Isles scored on that PP, then the Caps would not say that was a "good penalty" to take and this whole thing would have never bubble up.

However I did not like what Laich said in public because sports personality can have strong influence on young athletes and he may have indirectly encourage a minor to try to take out their opponent by taking a "good" penalty and give his team an edge to win, thus somehow hurt another young player badly. If you were the parent of the young boy who was injured and overheard after the game that the coach or parents of the other team talking about they won the game because of this "good" penalty, I wonder how you would feel and how you would have responded?

If Martin had taken out OV, Backstrom, Alzner, or Holtby, Laich would have been complaining that this is not the right way to play hockey. I used to like Brooks Laich. Not anymore.

 

[camper*]

Not to draw out this soap opera but I wonder if Laich knows (knew) about Lubo's concussion history. Also, there was no announcement made as to the status of Visnovsky (all Laich new was that he did not return to the game). I'd like to think that if someone told him that Lubo just suffered the 7th concussion of his career that Laich would have refrained from calling it a "quote unquote good penalty."

Players know everything about players..trust me