Air Canada threatens to pull sponsorship from NHL over headshots

[jamz]

How can people call the hit legal???
It was late and warranted a penalty, that makes it illegal.
So an illegal hit caused a serious injury.
That is the situation here.
It wasn't clean, it wasn't legal, it could have killed or paralyzed a young player.
No matter if the intent was to injure him it should have warranted a suspension.
I hope more follow. Molson should be the first.

 

[RECCE]

And kids get severely injured in the juniors, in NCAA hockey, in the NHL as well.

It is a violent game.

Let me ask you this, if Hal Gill puts the exact same hit on Patrice Bergeron....and Bergeron has the exact same injuries.....Air Canada doesn't do a darn thing..do they?

This has nothing to do with hockey, it has to do with Montreal fans feeling wronged. And it is hilarious that the people running a major airline are running their business based on that.

Ya, your right, may as well just sit back and wait until someone dies.

 

[tentcity]

Funny how they didn't say a peep when Marc Savard got creamed, or Sidney Crosby.....or just about anyone else.

I understand Montreal fans are upset, but a major corporate sponsor based in Montreal behaving like a whiny child is not good for either party. Whoever is behind this press fiasco at Air Canada should be fired by the board of directors.

A whiny child... I'm sure a billion dollar air transport charter company that's been operating for a hundred years and is sponsoring the NHL amongst other things has gotten to where its at because they behave like a "whiny child."

 

[mlm]

Omg ... what else can they be supporting and not yet outraged at

 

[swiftwin]

I find it beyond hilarious that, of all teams this could have happened to, it was Boston that initiated the hit.

You would think that Boston and their fans would know a thing or two about head shots. *cough* Savard *cough*

Its only a vicious suspendable headshot when it happens to your team, amirite?

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

A whiny child... I'm sure a billion dollar air transport charter company that's been operating for a hundred years and is sponsoring the NHL amongst other things has gotten to where its at because they behave like a "whiny child."

It's really a publicity stunt. They are not really a whiny child, more like an opportunist.

Do you figure Air Canada thinks that the NHL will reverse their judgement based on a sponsor's word? What's going to keep some corporation in Boston from doing the same thing the other way around? Idiotic.

You know, Montreal has great passion for the sport of hockey, but there's a dark side of fanaticism to it as well which has already tarnished the image of the league much more than any hit by Chara (Richard Riot).

 

[mrv52]

Nearly clever....

Without the Canadian dollar and support the nhl will dry up and blow away. You'll be back to 6 teams in no time, I'm sure. Have fun with that!

Yeah, cause its gonna happen. Air Canada and the Canadian media said so!

 

[flamer82]

According to the article, Crosby's concussion is from the Winter Classic. Was it not the Hedman hit? Get your facts straight.

The intial hit to the head was in the winter classic which likely would have caused the mild concussion but then he sustained the 2nd hit from hedman which only made matters worse seeing as he already had the brain swelling any hit whether it had been to the head or not likely would have had him out for weeks but with him hitting his head then it amplified it even more.

 

[btn]

Ya, your right, may as well just sit back and wait until someone dies.

It is not like the league specifically put in rules banning direct shots to the head this year, right?

The idea that the league is doing nothing about headshots is absurd. This was a normal hit made at the worst possible place it could have happened on the ice, what do you want to do? Ban any kind of checks within 10 feet of the stantions? Ban checking?

 

[ReVeuF]

Yeah teams being located in those cities will prevent cheap shots. Wait what? Something's getting lost in translation here.

To prevent cheap shots Bettman need to be fired, he got a very hot potato in his hand, even more than one because of the Phoenix saga... hope the owners open their eyes before it is too late.

 

[MountainHawk]

Ban grabbing a players head and steering into a stanchion would be a good start.

It was illegal to touch him there.

If you run a red light, and kill 5 children you didn't notice, should you not go to jail because you just meant to run the red light?

 

[tarheelhockey]

Its only a vicious suspendable headshot when it happens to your team, amirite?

Pacioretty may have hit his head, but that doesn't make it a headshot.

 

[jkrdevil]

Air Canada having issues filling flights in Canada would be like Delta having issues in Atlanta. Not gonna happen.

I'm going to quote Jeff Marek on Twitter on this:

Oil prices spiking, ticket increase inevitably to follow...how do we curry favour in this marketplace? hmmm, hmmm.....

Air Canada might not have any major airline competitors in Canada, but they do have to compete with people taking other means of transportation, or just not travelling all together. This is a we are on your side message to Hab fans.

 

[a pony]

Hey, I'm not here crying bloody murder. I'm not here starting one thread after another complaining about the "injustice" of it all.

And if Chara had gotten a few games suspension, I still wouldn't be here crying foul. The simple fact is, there are varying degrees of opinion on this issue, ranging from both extremes. But yet, there are those who only see their own opinion and who don't care what the other half think.

I, like any sane person, was expecting at least a couple of games for Chara to say to the players that they need to be responsible for their actions. The League, run by idiots, obviously doesn't give a **** about head injuries and ruled differently. Then Air Canada says that they'll re-examine their sponsorship in the League if this is the way they're going to look after thee players.

What did I miss that you were arguing against, because this all seems pretty reasonable to me.

 

[Kyle McMahon]

And kids get severely injured in the juniors, in NCAA hockey, in the NHL as well.

It is a violent game.

Let me ask you this, if Hal Gill puts the exact same hit on Patrice Bergeron....and Bergeron has the exact same injuries.....Air Canada doesn't do a darn thing..do they?

This has nothing to do with hockey, it has to do with Montreal fans feeling wronged. And it is hilarious that the people running a major airline are running their business based on that.

Ding, ding, we have a winner.

If this incident involves any team besides Montreal, (or Toronto), Air Canada does nothing. I mean, why now? This is just the latest in a laundry list of controversial incidents over the past few years.

 

[Pruch025]

Read the article before commenting, they're not only condemning the Pacioretty hit...

So where were they before this hmmm?

 

[ReVeuF]

Pacioretty may have hit his head, but that doesn't make it a headshot.

Ok someone throw a body through a window head first, is it a head shot ? The head hit first...

 

[Koss]

What the hell is Air Canada?

A Canadian company that helps subsidize failing American hockey franchises.

 

[swiftwin]

Pacioretty may have hit his head, but that doesn't make it a headshot.

It may not be the exact same play at Cooke's hit on Savard, but it was still an illegal play (interference), that resulted in a strong impact on Pacioretty's head and neck that resulted in a serious career-threatening injury.

Its very much like Cooke's hit on Savard.

 

[Pruch025]

Ugh more of this? Seriously this is Max Pacioretty we are talking about, not Crosby or Ovechkin. A guy took a hard hit and got hurt, it happens. Get over it!

The overreacting is becoming beyond ubsurd. Let Subban drop the gloves against Chara, get beat up, and be done with the whole situation.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

To prevent cheap shots Bettman need to be fired, he got a very hot potato in his hand, even more than one because of the Phoenix saga... hope the owners open their eyes before it is too late.

Cheap shots have been a part of the game as long as it's been played. Hockey features 12 angry men with sticks shoving and hitting each other for 60 minutes. People get mad, the ice will see claret. Do you not know "La bataille du Vendredi Saint"? Do you not think there was a whole history of nastiness between those two teams? That's hockey.

 

[MoreOrr]

I, like any sane person, was expecting at least a couple of games for Chara to say to the players that they need to be responsible for their actions. The League, run by idiots, obviously doesn't give a **** about head injuries and ruled differently. Then Air Canada says that they'll re-examine their sponsorship in the League if this is the way they're going to look after thee players.

What did I miss that you were arguing against, because this all seems pretty reasonable to me.

There you go, proving my point. Those HALF of the people who don't agree with you aren't sane. That's the stance you have, and I have no sympathy for that type of thinking.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Ok someone throw a body through a window head first, is it a head shot ? The head hit first...

So Randy Jones headshotted Bergeron? Think about how you are defining a headshot.

 

[Rob Brown]

The same way they made it this far...USA corporate sponsors, duh.

Hilarious.

So where were they before this hmmm?

This could just be the final straw. Just because they didn't come out with a statement before this doesn't necessarily mean they weren't concerned beforehand.

A Canadian company that helps subsidize failing American hockey franchises.

Win.

 

[HTFN]

It may not be the exact same play at Cooke's hit on Savard, but it was still an illegal play (interference), that resulted in a strong impact on Pacioretty's head and neck that resulted in a serious career-threatening injury.

Its very much like Cooke's hit on Savard.

Go watch the Youtube video posted on page 1. There are a ton of turnbuckle hits in there, and nobody was whining and crying foul then. Suddenly there's an injury and Montreal is involved and it's the worst thing to happen to hockey since one of the most blatant cheap shots in recent memory?

No.