Player Discussion: Yanni Gourde

These Are The Days

Oh no! We suck again!!
May 17, 2014
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Tampa Bay
Gourde absolutely f***ed him up. I love how they made sure to say "He picks his spots" like it's a bad thing.



Bitch....



As someone who only grew to 5'8 like Gourde because his 5'10 father wed a 5'1 mother was I supposed to get the memo to whoop on 6 footers or what? Thousands and thousands of people in my life and the only two people who EVER gave me enough reason to throw hands were two little shits exactly the same size as me at ages 10 and 16. We weren't picking spots we were stupid kids doing stupid kid things FFS.... These guys are hockey players who aren't regular fighters. It's an organic situation and not anything to be taken seriously.
 
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The Macho King

Back* to Back** World Champion
Jun 22, 2011
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Gourde absolutely ****ed him up. I love how they made sure to say "He picks his spots" like it's a bad thing.



*****....



As someone who only grew to 5'8 like Gourde because his 5'10 father wed a 5'1 mother was I supposed to get the memo to whoop on 6 footers or what? Thousands and thousands of people in my life and the only two people who EVER gave me enough reason to throw hands were two little ****s exactly the same size as me at ages 10 and 16. We weren't picking spots we were stupid kids FFS.... These guys are hockey players who aren't regular fighters. It's an organic situation.
Vrana is also 6 foot and like 210. I get he's not a fighter, but he's also like two weight classes over Gourde.

He thought the size advantage was enough. It wasn't.
 
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JoVel

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Jan 23, 2017
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Brian Boyle must be the worst fighter in the league when you take size into account. Gourde would probably kick his ass. Even Sustr beat Brendan Smith in his only NHL fight, who's actually a pretty good fighter.
 

These Are The Days

Oh no! We suck again!!
May 17, 2014
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Tampa Bay
Vrana is also 6 foot and like 210. I get he's not a fighter, but he's also like two weight classes over Gourde.

He thought the size advantage was enough. It wasn't.

Really now? I didn't know that. It makes the statement that much more stupid because Gourde scuffles once or twice every night and yet the only person to successfully challenge him to a fight was someone else who didn't fight. Vrana picked his spot more than anyone else and of course leave it to the broadcast team to say it was Gourde. Just a dumb thing to say. But I am gladdened beyond words we got to them go at it. Put me down as one of the "fighting has a place in hockey" fans. Hockey is 100 years old and back then regular, everyday people settled their differences bare-knuckle and after it was over they went back to life as usual so it naturally found its way into hockey. Call it antiquated, romantic or whatever gentlemanly superlative we can think of. If Cernak wails on Tom Wilson I promise you he won't be going anywhere near the likes of Kucherov again.

I live my life by the motto "Shit happens and it's not meant to be taken seriously" and neither are the fights in hockey. So let them have it and inspire their teams to victory. There's fewer stronger messages than to see your guy come out of a scrum victorious like Gourde did last night
 

TheDaysOf 04

[ 2 6 ] [ 4 ]
Jun 23, 2007
52,497
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NJ
"he's not going to take on anybody any taller or any heavier.."

When you're 5'9" - 172, that's almost everybody.
 

NatoGhost

Registered User
Jun 27, 2013
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"yeah he picks his spots Pierre, he's not going to take on anybody any taller or any heavier, so he picks his spots and he certainly did there with Vrana"

what a douche
 

DaBolts

Stanley Cup Boat Parades ROCK
Feb 3, 2015
14,991
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Two game suspension.

Called that last night:

He's got a history of concussion problems, so he's going to be out a few games at a minimum. I hope he's okay too.

He could use the rest before the playoffs. Or punk that punk Drouin in Montreal and get a fighting major there too. Either way, it's a bad penalty for a bad call by Toronto, again. One game I could see, but I knew this was coming after the Vrana fight.
 

SRQKiter

Registered User
Sep 26, 2018
780
444
Two is ok. It was a direct head shot. If it happened to one of our guys we'd all be screaming for 5. I don't care what team the player's on, they need to get that sh*t out of the game.
 

JDBolt

Registered User
Oct 14, 2017
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I'm fairly surprised since he was essentially already out for one game. Yes, there was head contact. But, it caught his face, and was a glancing blow. If he had caught him square in the head, he likely would have been concussed. I'm sure they don't take that into consideration at all, since a headshot is a headshot, as per the rules, but I just didn't see it as being that bad. It certainly wasn't intentional, and didn't do any damage. I certainly understand them sending the message that is unacceptable, but three total games missed seems a bit much.

Gudbranson's sucker punch uppercut on Martel was 10x more damaging, in my opinion, and he didn't get a damn thing. Idgaf if he was "retaliating" from his so-called "dirty hit" earlier in the game, that was straight-up intended to injure someone, and there's no mistaking that. Yanni's was purely incidental, and accidental (yes, also avoidable). If you asked me 10x which one was more severe, and which one deserves more punishment & needs to be removed from the game, I'd say sucker-punching over incidental, accidental head contact 10/10 times.

Can we get a little consistency here?
 

Sky04

Registered User
Jan 8, 2009
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I'm fairly surprised since he was essentially already out for one game. Yes, there was head contact. But, it caught his face, and was a glancing blow. If he had caught him square in the head, he likely would have been concussed. I'm sure they don't take that into consideration at all, since a headshot is a headshot, as per the rules, but I just didn't see it as being that bad. It certainly wasn't intentional, and didn't do any damage. I certainly understand them sending the message that is unacceptable, but three total games missed seems a bit much.

Gudbranson's sucker punch uppercut on Martel was 10x more damaging, in my opinion, and he didn't get a damn thing. Idgaf if he was "retaliating" from his so-called "dirty hit" earlier in the game, that was straight-up intended to injure someone, and there's no mistaking that. Yanni's was purely incidental, and accidental (yes, also avoidable). If you asked me 10x which one was more severe, and which one deserves more punishment & needs to be removed from the game, I'd say sucker-punching over incidental, accidental head contact 10/10 times.

Can we get a little consistency here?

Just because they missed one bad call doesn't mean they should miss 2.
 

JDBolt

Registered User
Oct 14, 2017
647
395
Just because they missed one bad call doesn't mean they should miss 2.
I do agree, the message had to be sent that it was an unacceptable hit, regardless. And one game vs two isn't a huge difference either way. Just frustrating to see a completely non-egregious hit getting punished, while another fully malicious hit goes completely unpunished.
 
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JoVel

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Jan 23, 2017
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No complaints. Didn't seem intentional but a reckless play. Two game "don't do that again" suspension for a first time offender seems about right.
 

Rschmitz

Finding new ways to cheat
Feb 27, 2002
15,745
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Tampa Bay
I didn't think he should have been suspended, but if they are going to give him 2 with a squeeky clean track record and on an unintentional hit, than they need to be consistent with that across the board.
 
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SRQKiter

Registered User
Sep 26, 2018
780
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I'm fairly surprised since he was essentially already out for one game. Yes, there was head contact. But, it caught his face, and was a glancing blow. If he had caught him square in the head, he likely would have been concussed. I'm sure they don't take that into consideration at all, since a headshot is a headshot, as per the rules, but I just didn't see it as being that bad. It certainly wasn't intentional, and didn't do any damage. I certainly understand them sending the message that is unacceptable, but three total games missed seems a bit much.

Gudbranson's sucker punch uppercut on Martel was 10x more damaging, in my opinion, and he didn't get a damn thing. Idgaf if he was "retaliating" from his so-called "dirty hit" earlier in the game, that was straight-up intended to injure someone, and there's no mistaking that. Yanni's was purely incidental, and accidental (yes, also avoidable). If you asked me 10x which one was more severe, and which one deserves more punishment & needs to be removed from the game, I'd say sucker-punching over incidental, accidental head contact 10/10 times.

Can we get a little consistency here?

I do agree, the message had to be sent that it was an unacceptable hit, regardless. And one game vs two isn't a huge difference either way. Just frustrating to see a completely non-egregious hit getting punished, while another fully malicious hit goes completely unpunished.
You make out like Gourde hit Staal with a feather duster. It was a completely reckless hit and anything but a glancing blow. Did he catch him 100%, maybe not, but not an incidental, glancing blow either. Concussion should not be the standard, potential for concussion should and this clearly meets that standard.
 

God King Fudge

Championship Swag
Oct 13, 2017
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I thought it was more deserving of one game vs two, but you can't deny it was a bad hit. Gotta be more careful.
 

JDBolt

Registered User
Oct 14, 2017
647
395
You make out like Gourde hit Staal with a feather duster. It was a completely reckless hit and anything but a glancing blow. Did he catch him 100%, maybe not, but not an incidental, glancing blow either. Concussion should not be the standard, potential for concussion should and this clearly meets that standard.
If you look at how his face turns to the side from the hit, instead of continuing to face straight and his whole head cranking towards his shoulder, you'd see what I mean. He caught little enough of his head for it to take much impact at all. Most of it was taken on his neck from his face turning to the side. Similar to what would happen if someone got punched in the nose from a side angle, versus being punched in the temple / ear / side of the head. Sure, one inch closer to his ear, and he may have had a concussion. I'm certainly not arguing the potential, just the reality of the hit itself. If it wasn't incidental like you say, then that means it was intentional, and even the DoPS disagrees with you. Avoidable? Yes. Intentional? No.

Damage taken aside, I did say that the message needed to be sent, and it's hard to disagree with the punishment since it was an avoidable headshot. I just don't agree with the "OMG Gourde is a dirty goon / was trying to hurt him / going for his head / no place for that in the game, he did it intentionally" stance a lot of people seem to be taking. There are plenty of other examples of truly dirty hits from players with dirty reputations that go unseen or unpunished, so I'm not trying to hear that garbage from other teams' hypocritical fanbases.

I think we all know that Yanni is going 110% at all times when he's on the ice, and is anything but a dirty player. Sometimes hits like that happen. I'm not going to be the one to perpetuate anything beside the fact that he should have made a last-minute course correction, and failed to do so.
 

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