On Staturday night, on Coach's Corner, Don Cherry called the Bell Centre a joke. Don Cherry made a solution to the problem on a diagram that he drew by hand that shows the way the Turn Buckle is now and the way "he" thinks it should be (in Picture Below). He blained it on the Habs owner Geoff Molson."Geoff Molson, you're a good guy. … But let's start with your building. Your stanchion, your turnbuckles are a joke," Cherry said. "Call all your players together in the dressing room. And you say I want you to answer this honestly and don't be afraid: 'How do you feel playing 41 games with that seamless glass and the boards in Montreal?Worst in the league for injuries,.Ask them that instead of going in the paper."
Don Cherry even went to the extent of using photoshop to show what he means (In another photo below). He said that if the Turn Buckle was on a slant like he's shown in his photo and Diagram that this injury would have never happend. I think he's right about that. But you can't put all the blame on Molson. Chara should have been aware of where he was on the ice and the fact that there was no puck in sight that he would send Pacioretty into the turn buckle. Cherry also went on to say that due to Chara never being suspended that you either give him a 20 game suspension or none. He also made another point in saying that if a player gets hit in the head with the puck and he gets injured that the NHL would suspend him becuase the player got hurt. He's saying overall that the NHL made the right call.
To be Honest, I usually agree with Cherry but I think that he's wrong in saying that the NHL made the right call in not suspending Chara. But the NHL should have suspended him to send a message to the league that hits to the head aren't right.
Written By Andrew Di Pardo
I’ve become sceptical of this need for increasing the length of suspensions because it doesn’t really acknowledge the reason why players make these bonehead hits on each other. It all boils down to fair play and mutual respect. If players respected each other a little more there would be a huge drop-off of headshots, blindsides, boarding, after the play and any other form of dirty hit. Given the speed and strength of NHL players it can’t be expected in all situations but if a player sees that his opponent is in a vulnerable position he should turn off. The onus is on the hitter to judge. Whether accidental or not if the hit is dangerous then there should be a suspension. I also hate this “he’s never been suspended” fluff because a punishable action doesn’t need anything else to make it bad. I did like Bettman’s suggestion (there’s a first) of punishing the team if the player is a repeat offender because then there is additional pressure on the player to play clean.
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