FROM THE OTTAWA SUN YESTERDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mark Borowiecki wasn’t about to use a visit by the National Hockey League’s department of player safety to the Canadian Tire Centre on Monday for his own agenda.
But the Senators alternate captain isn’t happy with a hit from behind by Montreal Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher during Ottawa’s 4-3 overtime victory Saturday night.
Gallagher was assesses a boarding penalty at 11:34 of the first period, but some felt that, given how Borowiecki had been hit, there could have been further discipline from George Parros and the department of player safety.
The subject didn’t come up when Parros and Patrick Burke dropped into the building Monday morning to meet with the management, coaching staff and players before practice, however Borowiecki thought Gallagher should have been disciplined.
“The principal point of impact was the base of my skull,” Borowiecki said Monday. “I just don’t understand that. George is someone I really respect and I really respected him when he played, he’s got a hard job. You’ve got a lot of people barking at you.
“‘One of the comments in the meeting was, ‘Some guys are going to go down and some aren’t, and that factors into it’. That maybe rubbed me the wrong way a little bit. Because I’m big and strong and I can get up from a hit like that, if I put Gallagher in a position like that and I hit him, chances are it’s going to be ugly and I would wager the chances are I’m going to get games.”
Borowiecki said the league needed to do a better job cracking down on these incidents.
“I think you’ve got to make sure guys aren’t taking liberties on certain players because of who they are and because they’re strong. That was a hit I don’t like and I wasn’t happy about it. I told Gallagher I thought it was a dangerous hit.
“I understand George has an incredibly hard job and I respect him for it. I certainly never in a million years would want that position, and I think he’s taken it head-on and he realizes that there’s going to be criticism. That’s just the nature of the beast.”
Borowiecki missed games with a concussion last year and doesn’t want to have any further problems.
“Hey, I don’t have the tinted visor on for style points. It looks cool but that’s from rehabbing from a really bad concussion,” Borowiecki said. “It’s one of those things where if you have watched me play, it’s changed my mindset a little bit. I’m not out there trying to rip guy’s heads off.
“I’m playing hard and through the body. I hit guys square on. I’ve been suspended, and I’ve had incidents, but for the most part, for the amount of hits I lay, I do the best I can to hit square on and not hurt guys. You kind of expect and hope for the same kind of respect from everyone.”
Borowiecki said he didn’t want to make the meeting about him.
“I didn’t want to be that guy who whines about hits on me. If it had been a hit on my teammate, I happily would’ve,” Borowiecki said. “I’m not going to sit there and cry about something that’s happened to me. That’s not me and I didn’t want to do that in front of my teammates.
“We all talked about it after the game and we all thought it was a bad hit, but I’m not going to sit there and drag my lip about it and plead my case.”
Parros is visiting all 31 teams to discuss player safety and met with the Boston Bruins on Monday before they skated in Ottawa.
Do you think he feels the same way today about his cheap shot?????????
