Shoulders have nothing to do with why people are upset with this hit. Benn made a dangerous from behind hit on Eichel driving his head into the boards. No one is saying Benn elbowed or hit Eichels head as the primary point of contact, people are saying Benn hit eichel sqaure in the numbers in the back(boarding) which drove his head into the boards.
I think you are seeing what you want to see there. The gif is blurry, but you can clearly see the number when Benn initiates contact. Yes it was a dangerous hit, but it was within the rules.
Yep. You bet your ass other teams are looking at us and thinking "man this is great, we can run Eichel and Dahlin all night and nothing will happen to us."I hate being a fan that complains about borderline physicality, just once I'd like to be the fan on the other side of the argument that can say "hey, hockey is tough sport, deal with it", and then laugh when the DOPS does nothing to reprimand our guys after playing on the edge.
I guess what it really comes down to is their complete lack of identity, I could deal with the softness if they had the skill, speed, or IQ to overcome a lack of toughness, but they are just completely average at most aspects of the game
Rule 41 - Boarding 41.1 Boarding – A boarding penalty shall be imposed on any player who checks or pushes a defenseless opponent in such a manner that causes the opponent to hit or impact the boards violently or dangerously. The severity of the penalty, based upon the impact with the boards, shall be at the discretion of the Referee. There is an enormous amount of judgment involved in the application of this rule by the Referees. The onus is on the player applying the check to ensure his opponent is not in a defenseless position and if so, he must avoid or minimize contact. However, in determining whether such contact could have been avoided, the circumstances of the check, including whether the opponent put himself in a vulnerable position immediately prior to or simultaneously with the check or whether the check was unavoidable can be considered. This balance must be considered by the Referees when applying this rule. Any unnecessary contact with a player playing the puck on an obvious “icing” or “off-side” play which results in that player hitting or impacting the boards is “boarding” and must be penalized as such. In other instances where there is no contact with the boards, it should be treated as “charging.” 41.2 Minor Penalty – The Referee, at his discretion, may assess a minor penalty, based on the degree of violence of the impact with the boards, to a player guilty of boarding an opponent.
The best part of that whole sequence was Eichel finishing Benn with a shoulder check after the board-jart thing and Benn getting all ass-hurt about being touched and giving Eichel the stick up on the shoulder and running his mouth at everyone in a white sweater. Reminiscent of Cam Neely; he can run around like a dink but let anyone give back a thimbleful and he has all the "how absolutely DARE you!" self-righteous indignation in the world. What a priss.
ULFIE DID NOTHING WRONG! Still one of my favorite CTHockeyViolence Facebook memes ever.
Yeah, yeah, I harp on people's negativity, but that's also in drect response to posters that have 3,00 posts and 2,999 of them are *****ing about the player/team/coach/gm, etc. I mean, why watch the sport if you don't get enjoyment out of it?
Personally, I'm a fairly optimistic person, but the softness of this team really gets to me, and pretty much has since our cup team.
I hate being a fan that complains about borderline physicality, just once I'd like to be the fan on the other side of the argument that can say "hey, hockey is tough sport, deal with it", and then laugh when the DOPS does nothing to reprimand our guys after playing on the edge.
I guess what it really comes down to is their complete lack of identity, I could deal with the softness if they had the skill, speed, or IQ to overcome a lack of toughness, but they are just completely average at most aspects of the game
