No one asked you to buy it. I missed the official concussion diagnosis by the on ice doctor before he hit the official. Wasn't aware it was conclusive he wasn't thinking straight. What a concept you get rocked and you're a bit angry and in that anger you do something kind of dumb. That's never happened before.
Please point out to me at what point you see anger coming from Wideman.
Well, even if Wideman was still in la-la land after the hit and didn't mean it, the league has to look at this incident very seriously. They take every measure to protect their refs. Wideman might have seriously injured the guy, woozy or not - he crosschecked the ref in the numbers. That incident easily had the potential to get the ref stretchered out of there.
If the league deems that there was no intent to injure, they still have to look at each other and ask, "Okay. Wideman was out of it and the ref was fine. Now what the heck happens the next time someone gets their bell rung and comes up swinging? What if the guy takes a swing at the ref and sends him to the hospital?"
The referees are people too, and with how fast, emotional, and tight a game of hockey can be, they deserve every safety measure they can get out there. Like an errant high stick, it might not be intentional but you still gotta keep it under control, and the 2 min minor (or double) reflects that.
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Kerry Fraser had a pretty in-depth look at it. Makes some good points.
Quote:
After a closer look, given the stutter-step executed by Wideman at the last second prior to impact, I have to believe that the Calgary defenceman really didn’t see the linesman until a collision was imminent and did not strike Henderson with intent to injure. If that was the case, an automatic suspension of at least 20 games would be imposed.
Given the finishing push, I don’t believe that Wideman should be given a pass either.
Quote:
While I believe contact at this point was unavoidable, I do not accept or condone the finishing push of Wideman’s hands that exacerbated the degree of impact and caused a hard fall to the ice by the linesman.
I would ask Wideman why he didn’t bear hug the defenseless linesman to minimize the contact. Why didn’t he decelerate his forward motion in any way to reduce the impact? Finally, I would ask why he felt it necessary to extend his arms and finish the contact with a strong push on the back of linesman Henderson.
This whole argument is ridiculous, There is no way Wideman did this intentionally. Even if he was angry about the hit why would he hit a linesman and not the ref? But thats not even the point. The point is this happens all the time on the ice, either you are looking down or at the bench or you are watching the play and you misjudge the line someone is taking, and you don't realize until its too late. Then all you can do is try to stop or get out of the way and brace yourself for impact, which is what Wideman did, and now its getting blown way out of proportion. Theres a reason the broadcasters barely seemed upset about this at all in the video because it was clearly a mistake and it happens sometimes.
Kerry Fraser had a pretty in-depth look at it. Makes some good points.
Quote:
I would ask Wideman why he didn’t bear hug the defenseless linesman to minimize the contact. Why didn’t he decelerate his forward motion in any way to reduce the impact? Finally, I would ask why he felt it necessary to extend his arms and finish the contact with a strong push on the back of linesman Henderson.
Eric Francis @EricFrancis
Breaking: linesman Don Henderson was in hospital until 5 am following hit by Wideman, dealing w neck pain & nausea. Concussion protocol done
Do officials have concussion protocol for in game?
I'm not sure if we know if Wideman had a concussion but no one has even mentioned the linesman's injuries. He definitely should not have stayed in the game. (he did stay in the game didn't he?)
Eric Francis @EricFrancis
Breaking: linesman Don Henderson was in hospital until 5 am following hit by Wideman, dealing w neck pain & nausea. Concussion protocol done
Eric Francis @EricFrancis
Breaking: linesman Don Henderson was in hospital until 5 am following hit by Wideman, dealing w neck pain & nausea. Concussion protocol done
I was at the game and I don't recall Henderson leaving the game, do Referee's have the same protocol as NHL players?
I can't recall the interview, but was listening to one where the ex-player was basically saying players now know the protocol and how to answer questions to allow themselves to get back on the ice.
It is a deep problem in the culture. The athletes still think they need to shake off the cob webs and get back out there. Long-term consequences be damned. And the league and teams allow this because they are trying to win.
I give gobs of credit to guys like Jon Cornish and Dmitri Tsoumpas who have the strength to retire early to retain their brain matter.
In some ways I think non football sports are even further behind because it is perceived to be less physical.
And this is where I also think the NHLPA is an utter failure.
They have spotters and trainers who should be able to see if a guy is woozy. You can't leave it on the players because their instinct is always going to be play on (and this isn't an NHL only issue, basically any sport and at any level very few people will take themselves out unless they physically can't continue).
Its on the spotters and trainers for not pulling the guy and getting the full testing done.
A similar (although a ton worse) situation happened in the NFL this year where this guy was clearly knocked loopy but no one pulled him out -
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Official and player are pretty different circumstances. If you think his reaction was normal then good for you. We see things differently. Oh no.
Find me video of a player running over a ref/linseman and the player stops to make sure the ref is okay, or help him up while the play around him continues.
Look at the Weber video, he plows into the ref, face to face, stick up, they both fall to the ice, Weber gets up, and continues to play, the linesmans well being is not his concern, if he's injured they'll blow the play dead, until then, game on. Same thing with the Volchenkov clip, he continues on, and in fact, after the kings score, the Devils bench/coach are outraged as they feel the collision with the ref led to the scoring opportunity. At no time was the linesmans well being the concern, and he was busted up and bleeding pretty bad. That's the nature of the game, you play until the whistle blows, and until it does, it's a contact sport. The refs are well aware of this as well, which is why the play isn't blown dead every time a ref gets bumped.
So the fact that he had trouble getting to his feet 10 seconds prior plays no part? or the fact that he's clearly not okay on the bench afterwards?
I don't think he looked groggy on the bench at all. If my kid kicks me in the shins I might take a minute to get up and still be shaking it off a minute later, but it doesn't mean concussion.
Wideman didn't get hit in the shins of course so maybe he was groggy, I don't know for sure. Just didn't look like it to me.
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Agreed, but Fraser's questions there are not made in context. Wideman's probably mental state at the moment explains why the hit ended the way it did: he was basically relying on muscle memory rather than anything conscious. Doesn't mean he should be let off the hook. All it really says to me is that there's no reason to get upset if he gets 10 games, and there is no reason to be upset if he gets 0.
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