Everything about this is so weird. Its hard to unbiased yourself when you sift through all the crap. As far as hockey is concerned, I'm ok with Wideman not playing. We get to see Nak-clah-dle. I really don't care that the Flames don't have Wideman available.
But because he is a Calgary Flame, I think I've over analyzed it. That statement from Bettman is complete hogwash. I couldn't disagree more with his ridiculous interpretation of what happened. The only shred of truth is the precedent angle. The refs, concussion protocol, media attention. They can't piss too many people off. So they may as well take the path of least resistance and piss off Wideman.
The text from Wideman was probably ill advised, perhaps childish. But kind of understandable for a guy who feels like he didn't do much wrong and is now caught in a stupid "save face" scenario that costs him just shy of 600K.
|