Chara's Revelation

Wow, you don't often see a revelation like this but Zdeno Chara admitted to the world that he is a moron. Chara told reporters

I had no idea (Pacioretty) was on the ice . I had no idea it was him.

As Dave Stubbs pointed out this means that, among other things, Pacioretty's name running from shoulder to shoulder on the back of the uniform isn't big enough to be recognized and one of the top defencemen in the world skates around unaware of the opponent he faces.

This ranks right up there with his other tasteless and stupid comment after the hit where he blamed Pacioretty for jumping into the stanchion. What a mook.

Hmmm .... the NHL gave Sean Avery a 6 game suspension for his off icee "sloppy seconds" comment. I wonder if Buttman (Yes, I deliberately misspelled his name.) will use these comments as a chance to do something without blaming it on the bhit? A face saving measure. Chara is giving in a 10 game suspension for his stupid comments.

Naw, Buttman is just as much of a mook as Chara.

Punishment Worthy

Paul Kubina of the Tampa Bay Lightning was given a 3 game suspension and fined $60,000 and change today for an elbow to Dave Bolland's head last night. No penalty was actually assessed in the game. Bolland was not hospitalised.

Sean Avery was given a 6 game suspension in 2008 for comments he made about his ex-girlfriend who was then dating a player on a team he would face that night. The comments were made before the game. The Dallas Stars served him some punishment of their own. After the last day of his suspension the Stars announced that Avery was not welcome back on the team. For comments about his ex-girlfriend and her current boyfriend (Dion Phaneuf) made OFF the ice, before the game.

Nick Boyton of the BlackHawks made a throat slashing gesture at another player after a fight. He received a 1 game suspension.

Eric Goddard got an automatic 10 game suspension when he left the bench to help defend his goalie after Michael Haley skated the length of the ice to start a fight. Martin got a 4 game suspension for ANOTHER incident in that game. A game full of stupidity.

Zdeno Chara runs (one could easily say guided) Max Pacioretty into a stanchion leaving him with a concussion and a fractured vertebra. This is done when Pacioretty doesn't have the puck. He gets no "supplementary" punishment from the NHL.

I could go on and on looking at suspensions handed out. Some that make sense, some that could be argued. Yet it is the non-suspension of Zdeno Chara that leaves me shaking my head at the NHL. A throat slashing gesture after a fight warranted a 1 game suspension. Comments made to the media, before a game, warranted a 6 game suspension. Chara's actions warrant none? What a fucking joke.

Zdeno Chara ... what a Mook.

I don't think Chara wanted to do the damage he did to Pacioretty. I do believe he wanted to hurt him a little, with a check. But it went further, even if accidentally or due to negligence. Regardless of if it was an accident or not, Chara should have been held responsible for his actions and the NHL dropped the ball. Again.

The NHL's lack of a response pissed me off to no end and then I read some of Chara's comments. The piece of shit actually tried blaming Pacioretty for his own injuries.

We were racing for the puck and battling for position," Chara said. "As the puck went by, obviously I was riding him out and it was very unfortunate that at the same time when I pushed him a little bit, he kind of leaned and jumped a little bit and just hit the glass extension.

Pacioretty jumped into it? He did the damage to himself? What a fucking piece of shit Chara is. He reminds me of the rapists who say their victims "asked for it".

Call me strange but it sure looks like Pacioretty's "jump" was assisted and guided by Chara's hand/fist.

Of course Chara's remarks also leave out the reality of the situation. They WEREN'T racing for the puck when it happened. It happened well AFTER Pacioretty played the puck. Which is WHY Chara was immediately hit with an interference penalty, plus a game misconduct because of what happened. It was a gratuitous hit AFTER the play. Chara's comments instead of showing contrition for almost crippling someone, and the jury is still out on that, show him to be an asshole.

Whether the injury was intentional or not Chara deserved more of a punishment than he got. To hear Chara spout the BS he did after the fact is disgusting. What a fucking mook.

Chara not suspended longer than 1 game.

Wow. Chara only gets a one game suspension for the way he almost crippled Pacioretty. (Pacioretty has a concussion and fractured vertebrae.) At a time the League is saying it wants to clamp down on hits to the head, and Mario Lemieux is whining about it, that is all Chara gets?

NHL Senior VP of Hockey Operations Mike Murphy said;

After a thorough review of the video I can find no basis to impose supplemental discipline. This hit resulted from a play that evolved and then happened very quickly -- with both players skating in the same direction and with Chara attempting to angle his opponent into the boards. I could not find any evidence to suggest that, beyond this being a correct call for interference, that Chara targeted the head of his opponent, left his feet or delivered the check in any other manner that could be deemed to be dangerous.

Hmmm ... it looks like Chara's hand/fist is guiding Pacioretty's head into the stanchion to me. Now I am not an NHL Official with lots of experience but that doesn't look like a check that came late to me. What was it Murphy said?

I could not find any evidence to suggest that, beyond this being a correct call for interference, that Chara targeted the head of his opponent, left his feet or delivered the check in any other manner that could be deemed to be dangerous.

No evidence? Hand guiding head into stanchion. Correct me if I am wrong but a check is shoulder/hip contact. Your elbow, hands, or knees, getting involved make it a bad/illegal check.

Whether it is a good hit gone bad or not it sure looks like more than a 1 game suspension. I figured he would get 3-5 extra games ... but none? The decision also ignored the fact that Chara was gunning for Pacioretty after an incident 2 games ago.

Then there was this comment;

In reviewing this play, I also took into consideration that Chara has not been involved in a supplemental discipline incident during his 13-year NHL career.

So, because he has had a relatively clean nose so far that precludes him from doing something wrong or negligent? What a bunch of icetards.

I hope Pacioretty recovers and is able to continue playing hockey. I hate to see anyone's career ruined that way.

Added later: There is a GREAT post about this on another blog, The H Does NOT Stand For Habs. In the comment section someone posted the following quote from Colin Campbell after Ovetchkin's suspension last year.

If you cause a player to be injured, then you have to be responsible for the play that you're involved in, if there's any carelessness or recklessness in it.

And this incident was different just because Chara never had any supplemental punishment before?

Steve Doocy: Advocate of Knob Gobbling?

I almost pissed myself laughing after the Daily Show had a clip where Fox and Friends were rambling on about a new DNA test. Steve Doocy then had to show that Gretchen isn't always the stupidest person there by saying;

“all you gotta do is put someone else’s DNA in your mouth.”

Considering that FOX is just a mouth piece for the far right in the US it has to make you wonder if this wasn't Douchey err Doocy's way of "coming out" and advocating gay sex.

Amazing Race

Tokyo. Never been there, would like to go some day. I want to go to the tavern that has monkey waiters. :) But I digress.

Man oh man talk about the headaches of having a connecting flight. Would you take a flight that involved a connection instead of a direct flight to get a 15 minute lead on the opposition? It is tempting, and in AR 15 minutes can mean a lot. Based on my experience ... I would go for the direct flight but I never had the pressure of racing for a chuck of change. And it turned out, due to delays, the early flight was late so instead of a 15 minutes lead those who took it ended up with a larger deficit.

The car garage in Tokyo was interesting. Stig used one in Cheonan before. The kind where your car is put in an elevator and shuffled off to a parking spot. In Korea the attendant put your car in and out. It was funny to see the racers get their own car out.

Best line had to be either

"I have dirt in places dirt should not be."

or

When Zev? gets out of the car to ask for directions with only underwear and a t-shirt on and the commentary from him goes "If a guy gets out of his car in his underwear to ask directions in the States you run the other way. Here they don't even bat an eye."

Good episode.

You aren't really sick.

My brother and I were talking about growing up last night. One thing that always comes to mind is how our mother reacted to illness. I had allergies pretty bad back then. When they hit my sinuses would get plugged. That was the main way they hit me. However, when it came to being sick my mother would pretty much always blame it on my allergies unless I had a fever. Even when it wasn't. There were times I was really sick that she would slough it off by saying it was my allergies until a doctor said I was sick. It always kind of pissed me off. :)

She still does that today sometimes. Drives me crazy when she does