Running Stanley Cup Playoff Thread

I don't want to go all Zapruder but Horton turned his head over so briefly to check on his pass. So, technically, you're right but I suspect he wouldn't have avoided the check anyway. Rome was coming at him full steam.

There was no reason for Rome to hit him. It was a late hit, pure and simple

 

I'm not the hockey expert some other folks are here, but I don't think you can blame a guy for not protecting himself from a hit that came THAT late. At some point, you've got to have some reasonable belief that you're not going to get drilled a minute and a half after you pass the puck (slight exaggeration, admittedly).

 

You should be more aware than he was in that region just as a matter of course, but that in no way excuses the hit.

 

Too bad some "hockey experts" don't get that. And that's not a shot at Hank, btw.

 

Horton's head was up if you look at the tape, just looking in the direction he passed the puck rather than back across the ice. It wasn't on a swivel, but it shouldn't have to be at that point because he's not eligible to be hit any more. Horton is also watching the guy with the puck so he doesn't go offside, so it's not even a case of admiring his pass here. He's looking in the appropriate location for the play. He should have known Rome was in the neighborhood sure, but any reasonable player would have expected Rome to pull up and not deliver that hit since the puck was released well before contact.

What makes it look like a blindside is Horton turns his path slightly more away from Rome at the last second. They were moving towards each other for much of the play.

It was about as blindside as Thornton on Perron (though Thornton was moving laterally to Perron's path for far longer than Rome was), but that's another issue of NHL suspension consistency rather than this hit being particularly malicious. The league redefined what constituted "blindside" about midway through the season - it started off being where the player was looking and has changed to being more where his chest is pointed.

 

I'm not going to debate the number of games Rome was suspended. I will say I expected it to be less than four games.

I believe they got it right when they ruled that it wasn't a blindside. You can't tell from the side angle, but from the endline camera, Horton actually angles to his right, directly toward the unseen Rome. He went toward Rome, not the other way around.

But Rome definitely left his feet for the head shot. That element of the play was reckless and suspension-worthy.

JR, not to be a nit-picker, but I would dispute that Rome was coming at him full steam. He was backpedaling, stopped just inside the blueline, then launched himself. Horton's own momentum made it appear that he got freight-trained. If Rome had actually been skating full steam, I shudder to think how much worse it might've been.

 

That wasn't me that commented about coming full steam.

I forget exactly where I saw the comments about having his head down. Think it was hockeyfights.com forum (which had a video of the hit up pretty quickly).

Obviously, you're not going to get as good of a discussion on other forums, like you would here.

 

Apologies, I tried to fix that immediately and wasn't quick enough.

 

I should be suspended for the late hit.

 

Sure it could. If the action of Player A directly result in the long-term unavailability of Player B and the league determines there was an intent to injure, you suspend Player A indefinitely until Player B is again deemed able to play. That will cut down a lot of this crap.

Is it subjective? Sure, but aren't all these decisions?

 

And you can bet your ass that the first time some scrub gets flattened by a star, he'll be out for career. Then what?

 

It's not subjective. It's actually objective.

It's also arbitrary and bad.