Doughty Hit on Carrier (UPD: Suspended One Game)

[GoldenBearHockey]

A one game suspension to show the NHL has the balls to take action in the interest of player safety would more than suffice for me.

Except, that won't happen, because A. no intent, B. no history, C. clear evidence that he was lining up for a body hit, and hit the body etc,

It will be at most a fine.

 

[Muston Atthews]

That’s clean, especially playoff hockey level clean. Keep your head up

 

[Pinkfloyd]

That’s clean, especially playoff hockey level clean. Keep your head up

There's nothing clean about a shoulder to the head.

 

[Anglesmith]

Should be a suspension. He picked the head. Yes, his shoulder grazed Carrier's shoulder on the way to the head, but this is a pretty classic example of the hit they were originally targeting with Rule 48.

I know that Kings fans are likely to make excuses and try to spin it some way to exonerate their best defenceman, but the reality is if he doesn't sit a game, the Kings are extremely lucky.

 

[HanSolo]

That’s clean, especially playoff hockey level clean. Keep your head up

There's nothing clean about a shoulder to the head.

And it's a bastardization of what it means to "keep your head up"

You can brace better for a hit when you can see it so keep your head up if you don't want to be laid out. A player having his head down doesn't give the hitting player carte blanche access to blast away the victim's head.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

And it's a bastardization of what it means to "keep your head up"

You can brace better for a hit when you can see it so keep your head up if you don't want to be laid out. A player having his head down doesn't give the hitting player carte blanche access to blast away the victim's head.

Especially when the NHL has repeatedly stated and disciplined many players saying that the onus is on the hitter to not hit the head. You can definitely point to instances where someone hit the head and got away with it but there's more evidence showing that they penalize them and they should be. Onus being on the hitter being used as an argument for Carrier running at Doughty even though he put the onus on himself to hold Doughty up to hit him against the boards cleanly yet that same standard somehow doesn't apply to Doughty to make sure he doesn't lay into the head to some people. It's amazing the mental gymnastics.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

And it's a bastardization of what it means to "keep your head up"

You can brace better for a hit when you can see it so keep your head up if you don't want to be laid out. A player having his head down doesn't give the hitting player carte blanche access to blast away the victim's head.

LOL agreed,

Glad that's not what happened here though, man hyperbole runs deep in this thread.

 

[HanSolo]

Except, that won't happen, because A. no intent, B. no history, C. clear evidence that he was lining up for a body hit, and hit the body etc,

It will be at most a fine.

I'll grant you the first two, with the caveat that there was no intent to injure but there was certainly no care taken to keep the hit low and minimize risk.

As to hitting the body? At best he grazed him on the way to the head. Do I think he meant to miss the full contact to the shoulder? No. But the way he hit high, it really doesn't matter much. As I said, he didn't do enough to minimize risk so the majority of the contact was to the head. We should be talking about how we limit damage to player's heads instead of how to defend star players at the expense of the health of the whole.

 

[Gord]

Well, it appears Bettman has an agenda for the Knights. Take Doughty out and they are sure to win.

conspiracy garbage.
maybe if Doughty didn't make a stupid decision, he wouldn't have had to worry about getting a hearing.

I can understand debating how bad the hit was, but to say the hearing is only to intentionally favor the knights to win? hogwash.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

I'll grant you the first two, with the caveat that there was no intent to injure but there was certainly no care taken to keep the hit low and minimize risk.

As to hitting the body? At best he grazed him on the way to the head.

Didn't mean a full hit obviously, but there was some body contact before the head contact, and DOPS absoutely takes that into account,

Again, fine, no suspension, should probably just use that as my signature

 

[MrGold]

Maybe we disagree on what malicious means, upward motion for extra is part of the game, that's how you are taught to hit, the power of the hit comes from your legs, not your torso

You can very well make a hit without upward motion and just go shoulder to shoulder with a sideways weight transfer in a situation like this one. Given the speed of the game, that's plenty sufficient to separate the puck carrier from the puck. This is especially true when the opponent is not standing upright as any sort of upward motion will make you slide on the shoulder and hit the head instead. But that's only half the problem here. The other half is Carrier is unaware Doughty is coming and doesn't brace his shoulder for impact, making it more likely that the hit will slide and hit him in the head. Going to say Doughty is responsible at 75% and Carrier at 25%, would give a game to Doughty.

 

[HanSolo]

Didn't mean a full hit obviously, but there was some body contact before the head contact, and DOPS absoutely takes that into account,

Again, fine, no suspension, should probably just use that as my signature

I'm not trying to convince you it should be a suspension or a fine. All honesty I think he'll get a fine too. I just think it's high time we re-adjust players' targets when throwing hits and giving Doughty a game in the middle of the playoffs would send as strong a message as any.

 

[Il Stugotz]

I’d give Doughty a game for that hit. It’s a perfect example of the type of hit the DoPS was created to eliminate.

There are some incredible mental gymnastics involved by fans and media guys who can look at that hit and not see a headshot.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

You can very well make a hit without upward motion and just go shoulder to shoulder with a sideways weight transfer in a situation like this one. Given the speed of the game, that's plenty sufficient to separate the puck carrier from the puck. This is especially true when the opponent is not standing upright as any sort of upward motion will make you slide on the shoulder and hit the head instead. But that's only half the problem here. The other half is Carrier is unaware Doughty is coming and doesn't brace his shoulder for impact, making it more likely that the hit will slide and hit him in the head. Going to say Doughty is responsible at 75% and Carrier at 25%, would give a game to Doughty.

Bolded the part where people rightly say, keep your head up. Doughty is not responsible for Carrier putting himself in that vulnerable position,

Again, mistimed, just off on the angle contributed to that hit, but again, Carrier keeps his head up, things are different, we aren't having this conversation.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

Bolded the part where people rightly say, keep your head up. Doughty is not responsible for Carrier putting himself in that vulnerable position,

Again, mistimed, just off on the angle contributed to that hit, but again, Carrier keeps his head up, things are different, we aren't having this conversation.

Doughty is responsible for not hitting him in the head no matter where his head is at.

 

[Daz28]

Well, it appears Bettman has an agenda for the Knights. Take Doughty out and they are sure to win.

Did you even watch the game? Twice the Kings player hooked a Knight so hard it ripped the stick out of their own hands. One was a break, and no calls. Fleury was running around with no helmet, and the wanted a Kings goal so bad they wouldn't blow the whistle. It's gonna be really hard for the refs to continue to try to keep the Kings in this series w/o it becoming obvious. If they don't, the Knights will blow them away. As for a suspension, he deserves it, but I'll be shocked if it's more than a meaningless fine. As for the "contact" part, he maybe barely grazed his shoulder. 99% of the force was applied to Carrier's head.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

Bolded the part where people rightly say, keep your head up. Doughty is not responsible for Carrier putting himself in that vulnerable position,

Again, mistimed, just off on the angle contributed to that hit, but again, Carrier keeps his head up, things are different, we aren't having this conversation.

Doughty is responsible if he has time to adjust his hit accordingly and can make a legal body check without making major contact (or primary contact) with the head.

 

[SenzZen]

Doesn't matter if it was a "blindside hit" or not, so there's no point arguing that.

Doughty picked the head. Intentionally or otherwise, he deserves to be suspended for that.

But I highly doubt he will be.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

He didn't get very much contact to the body, which is necessary to make that kind of hit legal.

It's a high risk hit and he missed. I could see him getting a game.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Oh yea...he's sitting a game for that one. DIRTY.

 

[Pez68]

It was a head shot. That said...star player. Might get a fine.

 

[IceNeophyte]

Wait whats questionable about that

Any time a King gets hit it's questionable.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

Doughty is responsible for not hitting him in the head no matter where his head is at.

And if Carrier had his head up, he wouldn't have....

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

Doughty is responsible if he has time to adjust his hit accordingly and can make a legal body check without making major contact (or primary contact) with the head.

Agreed, and like I keep saying, mis-timed, poor angle, it's going to result in a fine...not a suspension

 

[Pinkfloyd]

And if Carrier had his head up, he wouldn't have....

And if Doughty actually aimed and hit his shoulder, he wouldn't have either. One of those he can actually control. The other he can't.