TSN: Hartley fined $25,000 & Tortorella suspended six games

[Bosnian Beast]

NEW YORK -- The NHL has suspended Vancouver Canucks coach John Tortorella without pay for 15 days and six games for his conduct after a brawl between his team and the Calgary Flames.

Tortorella went to Calgary's locker room at intermission following the first period Saturday night, which began with a handful of fights and four game misconducts per team.

"Mr. Tortorella's actions in attempting to enter the Calgary Flames locker room after the first period were both dangerous and an embarrassment to the league," NHL senior executive vice president of hockey operations Colin Campbell said in announcing the suspension. "Coaches in the NHL bear the responsibility of providing leadership, even when emotions run high, and Mr. Tortorella failed in his responsibility to the game."

Tortorella blamed Flames coach Bob Hartley for starting his fourth line, saying he couldn't put star players Daniel and Henrik Sedin at risk just to deflate the situation. Hartley was fined US$25,000 by the NHL.

"We are holding Mr. Hartley responsible for the actions of Flames' right wing Kevin Westgarth, who took the game's opening face-off and attempted to instigate a premeditated fight with an unwilling opponent -- the Canucks' Kevin Bieksa," Campbell said.

This is the second career suspension for Tortorella, who missed Game 6 of the 2009 Eastern Conference quarter-finals as coach of the New York Rangers for throwing a water bottle into the stands in Washington.

Tortorella's suspension begins Tuesday night with Vancouver's game at the Edmonton Oilers and runs through Feb. 2.

I wasn't sure if this was necessarily thread worthy, but I figured I might as well post it in case people do want to discuss it.

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[FLAMES666]

Pretty harsh if you ask me. This is worse then most of the hit to the head suspensions

 

[Ace Rimmer]

Appropriate all around, IMO.

 

[Calculon]

Tortorella should have been suspended for longer and fined much more. His actions during the intermission were a complete disgrace to the league. And he's a repeat offe nder.

I don't really agree with the fine on Hartley but I can understand where the league is coming from. It's a fine to deter other coaches from icing their fourth line at the beginning of games as much as it is punishing Hartley.

 

[kirant]

Tortorella should have been suspended for longer and fined much more. His actions during the intermission were a complete disgrace to the league. And he's a repeat offe nder.

I don't really agree with the fine on Hartley but I can understand where the league is coming from. It's a fine to deter other coaches from icing their fourth line at the beginning of games as much as it is punishing Hartley.

The fine was described by Campbell as (paraphrasing) "intentionally sending Westgarth at centre to fight an unwilling opponent".

Given Bieksa sometimes fights, I could imagine this is reference to Lain. He's a tough guy (5 fights in 1 year), but Bieksa kept moving in to talk to him and it seemed very odd. My guess is that Lain started centre, Westgarth lined up opposite and said something along the lines of "dropping the gloves to start the game", but Lain didn't want to fight right away. Then when Westgarth was absolutely serious about it (something along the lines of "I don't care man"), Bieksa skated in, told Lain to get out, and away we go.

This idea seems to fill in the holes in the story: why Bieksa kept skating into the centre dot, why neither even tried to get the puck, and why Westgarth of all players was the centre.

But it also assumes Bieksa is a team player, and I'll always vote opposite of Bieksa

 

[InfinityIggy]

I love it. The fine is meh.

 

[Lunatik]

25k is a nothing fine

 

[MuffinMerc]

Bieksa was very much willing to go after Smid. I thought Kevin was supposed to be protecting Lain from Westgarth?

 

[BVicious]

I think Hartly getting a fine is Pejorative Slured, and I hate this league more and more.


There is no rule as to what player has to play what position. If it was on the opening roster card, REGARDLESS of intention, he did nothing wrong.


I hate the NHL on so many levels.

 

[MarkGio]

I'm surprised the league made the right call. That's rare.

Hartely putting Westgarth at centre was the only thing I questioned from Hartely and it looks like he got nailed for it. Torts is just a spaz who got hit up for being a baby.

 

[MuffinMerc]

I think Hartly getting a fine is Pejorative Slured, and I hate this league more and more.


There is no rule as to what player has to play what position. If it was on the opening roster card, REGARDLESS of intention, he did nothing wrong.


I hate the NHL on so many levels.

Hartley TOTALLY should have been fined, but $25,000 for player selection is nothing. Blair Jones wasn't to take the opening faceoff, but Westgarth was? It's so obvious they were told to start something, and obvious to everyone that Torts would send out his 4th line in response. I'm happy though, I guess Bob won't be buying everyone a steak dinner tonight.

 

[JulianHopper*]

A Little Over The Top

Six games seems excessive to me, 2 games max would have been adequate here.

The fine to Bob Hartley is a lot as well, I don't think he should have been fined at all.

I think a one game suspension and a $25,000 fine for John Tortorella would have been adequate here.

But you know the NHL is a big player on the world sports stage so they have to take that into consideration as well.

They should be running the league from a hockey perspective and not a general sports perspective. It's not like this type of incident happens every week.

So yeah I have to say this was a bit of an over reaction by the league.

 

[Calculon]

Statement from Burke:

Calgary Flames ‏@NHLFlames
(1/2) I am perplexed by this fine. I stand behind Bob Hartley completely in this regard …

Calgary Flames ‏@NHLFlames
(2/2) and remain confident that he acted properly in every aspect of this game.

 

[MuffinMerc]

We need moar fightas, Burkie!

 

[kirant]

We need moar fightas, Burkie!

Next game needs a bench clearing brawl.

 

[Anglesmith]

I don't think that 6 games is too harsh at all. Frankly, when I watched the intermission skirmish, the first thing that came to my mind was this:



Obviously, not the kind of drama the NHL wants to be associated with.

The fine was described by Campbell as (paraphrasing) "intentionally sending Westgarth at centre to fight an unwilling opponent".

Given Bieksa sometimes fights, I could imagine this is reference to Lain. He's a tough guy (5 fights in 1 year), but Bieksa kept moving in to talk to him and it seemed very odd. My guess is that Lain started centre, Westgarth lined up opposite and said something along the lines of "dropping the gloves to start the game", but Lain didn't want to fight right away. Then when Westgarth was absolutely serious about it (something along the lines of "I don't care man"), Bieksa skated in, told Lain to get out, and away we go.

This idea seems to fill in the holes in the story: why Bieksa kept skating into the centre dot, why neither even tried to get the puck, and why Westgarth of all players was the centre.

But it also assumes Bieksa is a team player, and I'll always vote opposite of Bieksa

I think it was more the fact that Westgarth dropped the gloves and Bieksa didn't, which looked bad on the Flames' part. Westgarth in his post-game interview said that he assumed that Bieksa replacing Lain was akin to asking for a fight (because why else would he replace him?), and you can see that Westgarth didn't sucker him when he didn't drop the gloves.

Frankly, I find it annoying that people keep pointing to Westgarth lining up at centre. That wouldn't have happened until the Canucks sent out their biggest players for the centre, and the biggest of those biggest players was at centre. I think the Flames took the Canucks' choice of lineup as a sign of an interest in fighting, and they didn't want Blair Jones to line up against a 6'6" centre.

 

[Kanye]

If anything this exposed Bieksa in being a spot picker

 

[MarkGio]

I don't think that 6 games is too harsh at all. Frankly, when I watched the intermission skirmish, the first thing that came to my mind was this:



Obviously, not the kind of drama the NHL wants to be associated with.



I think it was more the fact that Westgarth dropped the gloves and Bieksa didn't, which looked bad on the Flames' part. Westgarth in his post-game interview said that he assumed that Bieksa replacing Lain was akin to asking for a fight (because why else would he replace him?), and you can see that Westgarth didn't sucker him when he didn't drop the gloves.

Frankly, I find it annoying that people keep pointing to Westgarth lining up at centre. That wouldn't have happened until the Canucks sent out their biggest players for the centre, and the biggest of those biggest players was at centre. I think the Flames took the Canucks' choice of lineup as a sign of an interest in fighting, and they didn't want Blair Jones to line up against a 6'6" centre.

Hartely had to submit his starting line-up to refs prior to Vancouver submitting theirs

 

[MuffinMerc]

If anything this exposed Bieksa in being a spot picker

Everyone knew this already.

 

[Kanye]

Everyone knew this already.

But now it's made even more public. That entire team is a joke lol.

 

[TheHudlinator]

If anything this exposed Bieksa in being a spot picker

Listen I hate Bieksa as much as the next guy but he had the guts to spare the rookie (if Westgarth was going to fit). Sure someone else had to deal with Westgarth but it is was ballsy and veteran move to pull. If anything I gained some respect for him.

 

[MuffinMerc]

Listen I hate Bieksa as much as the next guy but he had the guts to spare the rookie (if Westgarth was going to fit). Sure someone else had to deal with Westgarth but it is was ballsy and veteran move to pull. If anything I gained some respect for him.

No he didn't. Lain still ended up against Westgarth as a willing combatant.

 

[TheHudlinator]

No he didn't. Lain still ended up against Westgarth as a willing combatant.

I thought that's who Butler ended up with nvm.

 

[Short Shift]

The fine is a slap on the wrist, and a caution by the league.
Besides, it's not like Bob has a job once the new GM comes in.

 

[Anglesmith]

Hartely had to submit his starting line-up to refs prior to Vancouver submitting theirs

Correct, but he doesn't have to say who's going to take the faceoff. If the Canucks put out another line or don't express an interest in fighting, I bet you Blair Jones takes that faceoff. Once the Canucks' intent was clear, I think Westgarth and McGrattan wanted to make sure they had the two biggest heavyweights.