Post-Game Talk (GBU): don't call it a comeback

[OkimLom]

I went to this yesterday. Then over the course of the afternoon and evening, read a bunch of knee jerk reaction posts on the main board mixed with logical well thought posts about the facts of the hit. Also watching the videos..

1. McCabe did not leave hit feet to hit Laine.
2. McCabe did not lead with this elbows or arms.
3. McCabe did not "head hunt" Laine. He's not that type of player at all.
4. McCabe was injured on the play by his own visor.
5. Helmets collided from the impact of two bodies hitting each other.
6. Laine looked like his shoulder hit the ice, not his head. It was close, but i can't be 100% sure his head hit off the ice.
7. Buffalo fans were cheering the hit ONLY. Not the injury to Laine.
8. The same Buffalo fans cheered and clapped when Laine got to his feet and skated off.
9. Any fan base would have reacted the same way. And some (Boston and Philly) fans would have booed when the injured player got up and skated off.
10. Textbook clean hit. And 99% of hockey fans agree.


Side thoughts.... The pass to Laine was kind of a suicide pass IMO.

I think there's a VERY STRONG majority that agreed it was a clean hit, as it was a clean hit, and IMO just as clean as the hit McCabe put on Paille in Boston. Much like the Paille hit there will be fans who are pissed and will try to frame it so that it sounds so much worse. Usually those fans have a team connection, and in the case of the Laine hit, fellow countrymen.

I think the funniest part about the main board were the fans claiming Buffalo fans were cheering the injury to Laine and in turn were classless, when there were multiple people of all teams saying it was because of the action of the hit, and the scrum that happened after.

There was nothing wrong with the hit, there was nothing wrong with the scrum that followed(I would hope our players did the same).

For me, McCabe got cut by his own visor, everything was tucked in. He exploded into the hit for sure, but he didn't jump.

DoPS should come out and say, how the hit was laid out and how it happened with the angle and the timing, that open ice hits should be just like this one.

 

[Sabre Dance]

I think there's a VERY STRONG majority that agreed it was a clean hit, as it was a clean hit, and IMO just as clean as the hit McCabe put on Paille in Boston. Much like the Paille hit there will be fans who are pissed and will try to frame it so that it sounds so much worse. Usually those fans have a team connection, and in the case of the Laine hit, fellow countrymen.

I think the funniest part about the main board were the fans claiming Buffalo fans were cheering the injury to Laine and in turn were classless, when there were multiple people of all teams saying it was because of the action of the hit, and the scrum that happened after.

There was nothing wrong with the hit, there was nothing wrong with the scrum that followed(I would hope our players did the same).

For me, McCabe got cut by his own visor, everything was tucked in. He exploded into the hit for sure, but he didn't jump.

DoPS should come out and say, how the hit was laid out and how it happened with the angle and the timing, that open ice hits should be just like this one.

Surprised anyone would say otherwise.

Im surprised McCabe was able to absorb the hit without falling or getting off balance. Laine isnt a small guy.

 

[OkimLom]

Surprised anyone would say otherwise.

Im surprised McCabe was able to absorb the hit without falling or getting off balance. Laine isnt a small guy.

I don't agree with them one bit, but I understand it. Fandom is very strong with people and they don't like when one of their guys gets hurt, and rage blinds them to the circumstances.

 

[BB88]

As you have posts about it

 

[tsujimoto74]

Welp, that sucks for Laine and the Jets. Hope he recovers quickly. Still a beautiful hit, though.

 

[sabresfan129103]

You hear some of these people talk...they want to take hitting out of the game completely.

 

[OkimLom]

You hear some of these people talk...they want to take hitting out of the game completely.

No, they just don't want other teams hitting against their teams. They have no problem with their team lighting guys up and other teams hitting other teams. Just don't hit their team

 

[BB88]

Welp, that sucks for Laine and the Jets. Hope he recovers quickly. Still a beautiful hit, though.

It was a beautiful hit. I just hate that (accidental) head contact.

 

[RasmWristshotlainen]

All the best to Laine. too bad he didn't have time to look up and prepare for the hit. McCabe stood like a statue on that one. As some other poster said earlier, boring first two periods and the third buffalo was in beast mode. Fun to watch quality hockey. Also, a NHL game that was watchable in Finland in the evening is nice but still don't know if its too early over there at 1PM...

Nice to see Buffalo win a game here and there. It gives a little glimpse of what the future could bring for the franchise

 

[jBuds]

After missing Jack early for an extended period, you have to empathize with Winnipeg fans and hope it's nothing more than a two week thing.

 

[ZZamboni]

Ugh. That truly sucks. I hope it's as minor as possible. Quick return for Laine.

 

[WpgBuffan]

it sucks for Laine but Jets fan gloat about Big Buff's hits all the time. They do not care at all if he injuries someone.

 

[dkollidas]

After missing Jack early for an extended period, you have to empathize with Winnipeg fans and hope it's nothing more than a two week thing.

For sure. It's depressing

 

[adsfan]

Nashville fan here. I thought it was a clean hit.

What I didn't like was the fight in the crease at the end of the game. The Buffalo goalie was trying to push a guy out of his crease. Byfuglien rips off the goalie's mask and starts fighting with him.

If anybody should be suspended from that game, it is Byfuglien for jumping the goalie from behind. All of that was unnecessary!

 

[Icicle]

Nashville fan here. I thought it was a clean hit.

What I didn't like was the fight in the crease at the end of the game. The Buffalo goalie was trying to push a guy out of his crease. Byfuglien rips off the goalie's mask and starts fighting with him.

If anybody should be suspended from that game, it is Byfuglien for jumping the goalie from behind. All of that was unnecessary!

I think half the board here would love to see our goalie get into the fight he's always wanted to be in, and get injured in the process.

 

[Dubi Doo]

Beautiful hit by McCabe. I feel for Laine. He didn't have a chance to react.

 

[DJN21]

Nashville fan here. I thought it was a clean hit.

What I didn't like was the fight in the crease at the end of the game. The Buffalo goalie was trying to push a guy out of his crease. Byfuglien rips off the goalie's mask and starts fighting with him.

If anybody should be suspended from that game, it is Byfuglien for jumping the goalie from behind. All of that was unnecessary!

That was ironically my favorite part of the game lol...

 

[sincerity0]

You hear some of these people talk...they want to take hitting out of the game completely.

It sucks Laine got hurt. Obviously WPG fans are upset that their stud rookie is hurt from the hit. If that hit was on Eichel I'm sure we would be on here coming up with reasons why it was a dirty/illegal hit.

Hell, one WPG fan argued on the main board that McCabe could have poke checked the puck away instead of hitting Laine.

As another poster said everyone loves hitting until one of their best players gets hurt. The fact is, with hits like this there is no safer alternative. If you implement a rule that says players have to "let up" to avoid big hits then that creates gray area. What is "letting up?" Could the player have let up more before the big hit?

I hate to see injuries (especially concussions) but there is no way to eliminate a clean hit like that from the game without banning checking or allowing gray areas which creates ambiguous calls.

 

[old kummelweck]

I'm having a hard time being OK with this hit. I understand it is legal, and I don't believe McCabe had any intention of concussing or injuring Laine, but it seems unnecessarily brutal, much in the way the Campbell/Umberger hit was.

I also found it interesting that it was left off the NHL.com game summary and even the sabres didn't use it as the carruba collision (or whatever they are calling it these days).

Given a star player gets knocked out for a bit and how the NHL is getting sued around CTE, I'm thinking this one may trigger some rule changes around open-ice hitting.

(jumping into a fox hole)

 

[Panthaz89]

I'm having a hard time being OK with this hit. I understand it is legal, and I don't believe McCabe had any intention of concussing or injuring Laine, but it seems unnecessarily brutal, much in the way the Campbell/Umberger hit was.

I also found it interesting that it was left off the NHL.com game summary and even the sabres didn't use it as the carruba collision (or whatever they are calling it these days).

Given a star player gets knocked out for a bit and how the NHL is getting sued around CTE, I'm thinking this one may trigger some rule changes around open-ice hitting.

(jumping into a fox hole)

There was nothing wrong with it....its like throwing high over the middle to a receiver in the NFL you are setting up your teammate to get blasted.

 

[sincerity0]

There was nothing wrong with it....its like throwing high over the middle to a receiver in the NFL you are setting up your teammate to get blasted.

I agree...you're trying to knock the player off the puck, or in football disconnect them from the ball.

The difficulty with the other posters statement was that it was unnecessarily brutal. At what point do you say that it was not a brutal hit? There is such an ambiguous area there that it creates a point where any hard hit could have been avoided if the player let's up a bit. At this juncture we should just eliminate checking.

Was the hit hard? Absolutely.

Was it a suicide pass? No doubt.

There's a reason why players are ALWAYS told to keep their head up. The hardest hit is the one you don't see coming.

 

[DJN21]

I'm having a hard time being OK with this hit. I understand it is legal, and I don't believe McCabe had any intention of concussing or injuring Laine, but it seems unnecessarily brutal, much in the way the Campbell/Umberger hit was.

I also found it interesting that it was left off the NHL.com game summary and even the sabres didn't use it as the carruba collision (or whatever they are calling it these days).

Given a star player gets knocked out for a bit and how the NHL is getting sued around CTE, I'm thinking this one may trigger some rule changes around open-ice hitting.

(jumping into a fox hole)

It's no more brutal than the seemingly 2 boarding calls you see on any given night in the league. The difference is players are trained from a young age to avoid these kinds of hits i.e not be caught with their heads down whereas players aren't trained to always be braced to have their face caved into the boards.

If people are legitimately concerned about removing injuries/concussions from the game as a result of removing unnecessary hitting then they are looking in the wrong direction.

Mccabe makes the hit or likely gets burned by laine again. You can't expect a professional player to make a split second competitive decision to not hit a guy because it's in the gray area and allow them to walk in alone...

 

[Ace]

This is why people say things like "keep your head up" and criticize the pass.

Because there is no other correct play for McCabe to make in that situation than what he did. You can't move out of the way and let him go because he's not looking. McCabe did the exact right thing in the exact right way and there's no way to eliminate that play without just letting people skate wherever they want unimpeded.

So...keep your head up. And don't make that pass.

 

[Panthaz89]

This is why people say things like "keep your head up" and criticize the pass.

Because there is no other correct play for McCabe to make in that situation than what he did. You can't move out of the way and let him go because he's not looking. McCabe did the exact right thing in the exact right way and there's no way to eliminate that play without just letting people skate wherever they want unimpeded.

So...keep your head up. And don't make that pass.

Yeah usually its either hit the guy or wait around and let them get in position to score......it was pretty annoying when the Sabres lost their aggression at the end of the game and let Armia go circles around them in their own zone at the end of the game.

 

[OkimLom]

I'm having a hard time being OK with this hit. I understand it is legal, and I don't believe McCabe had any intention of concussing or injuring Laine, but it seems unnecessarily brutal, much in the way the Campbell/Umberger hit was.

I also found it interesting that it was left off the NHL.com game summary and even the sabres didn't use it as the carruba collision (or whatever they are calling it these days).

Given a star player gets knocked out for a bit and how the NHL is getting sued around CTE, I'm thinking this one may trigger some rule changes around open-ice hitting.

(jumping into a fox hole)

Follow another sport??? I don't know what else to say.

It's hockey, it comes with the territory, it's part of the risk of playing hockey. Ask any Hockey analysis and anybody connected to hockey and they will all say there was nothing wrong with this hit, and probably the perfect example of how to hit someone in the context of not bringing up the arms, elbows or stick. It's not McCabe's fault Laine didn't have his head up. His goal is to separate the guy from the puck. Mission accomplished. McCabe played poorly on the Laine assist to Ehlers earlier in the game by playing the puck instead of the body and how did that work out? The hit was necessary to play the game of hockey. McCabe was caught pretty flatfooted. If he tries a poke check he's burned again. Laine skated into his lane, he has the right to his space on the ice.

As for the Carruba Collision, they didn't want it as the hit because they didn't know the severity of the injury to Laine. If Laine returns or gets back up, that's probably the hit of the game.