I'll be stunned if he gets suspended. It's so obvious it's an accident I'm surprised there's even a thread on here about it. This is HF ridiculousness.
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here's the Daniel Carcillo incident that warranted a 10 game suspension (in the playoffs, I might add). I gotta say, that looked pretty tame by comparison to what Wideman did. Obviously, it will come down to what his intention was, but it looks pretty nasty.
The rule book is pretty clear that if you fight back against an official after he has broken up an altercation, it's a game misconduct and an automatic 10 game suspension (20 if there was intent to injure). Carcillo takes two swings at the linesman and fights back when the linesman is trying to put him in the box.
He probably would have gotten away with the first swing in the heat of the moment, but the second swing and unwillingness to go into the box were what pushed it over the line.
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Originally Posted by sun
Some more accidental collisions:
The Clifford on Neil hit about 2:30 into this one, and the Marleau on Burns hit around 4:14 are both very similar to the Wideman hit. In each case, one player sees the other guy at the last second and throws up his arms to protect himself, but because he's holding his stick, he ends up cross-checking the other guy.
Other than being in open ice instead of at the boards, the Marleau-Burns is almost identical to the Wideman hit. Burns is skating backwards, Marleau throws up his stick and hits Burns pretty hard in the back, knocking him down. Like Wideman, Marleau has no reason to want to hit Burns.
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I think Wideman was angry about being hit hard and in pain and took it out on the first person that he came into contact with.
He made a mistake that he probably immediately regretted. Thats the way I see it anyway.
I hate to say it, but this is my interpretation as well. It is possible, I suppose, that he didn't see the linesman, but that looks far from obvious in any of the video.
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Originally Posted by woob
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But we really don't know one way or the other whether the spotter flagged the incident. He is under instruction to be in contact with the bench under these circumstances, and for all we know he did just that. His responsibility ends once the team is alerted.
Totally.
I'm just interested that the priority seems to be about covering the NHL's liability rather than improving on-ice player safety.
You've never seen a player get hit hard by an opponent and act aggressively right after?
I've never seen a player get hit hard by an opponent and act aggressively towards an official before, no. Have you? This being a "classic example", I would love to see some more entries.
The only logical explanation is the explanation that Wideman gave.
If Wideman intended anything, the whole incident would look much different than it did.
For a hockey player holding a stick, raising arms to brace for an impact looks a lot like a cross check, especially when it happens at the last minute.
Wideman cross checking a linesman, just "at random", doesn't make any sense.
To expand on this, the biggest tell tale sign of what really happened is the immediate reactions of the people on the ice at the time:
Wideman - apologizes and continues to the bench. No aggression evident
Players - no response. No ones acting like Wideman did something intentional.
Refs - no response.
Everyone acting like it was an unintentional collision is pretty good evidence that, it was in fact an unintentional collision.
I'd be very surprised if the league said anything different after they review the incident. The league may very well have completed their review of the incident by the end of the game.
Aggression to whoever is nearby is a textbook concussion symptom.
He's clearly not all there when he skates to the bench, cross checks the linesman then doubles over when he gets to the bench.
The bigger question to me is why the #### was he back into the game after that? He should have been straight the dressing room and tested for a concussion.
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I'll be stunned if he gets suspended. It's so obvious it's an accident I'm surprised there's even a thread on here about it. This is HF ridiculousness.
Meanwhile every other NHL board I've gone to has been largely in favour of a suspension.
Nevermind the 50/50 poll split...
Edit: Although perhaps it's just convenient for the league to ignore this? Doing so would avoid bringing attention to Wideman having not gone to the quiet room despite apparently being so dazed that he unintentionally crosschecked a linesman.
Last edited by CampbellsTransgressions; 01-28-2016 at 12:22 AM.
I admit it looks bad at first glance, but I have a really hard time believing it was intentional. This would be COMPLETELY out of character for Wideman. He's not known as a dirty player or an agitator, and why would anyone hit a linesman? It just doesn't make sense. Also if you watch his feet right before he hits him he turns them to the right. He doesn't just plow straight through him. If I had to guess he was opening and closing his eyes and/or looking down not really paying attention. No one with half a brain would do anything like that, especially someone like Wideman.
You know, it's great to armchair quarterback this.
Either way what you have is a very serious incident that is out of character for Wideman.
I am certain the league will spend it's time and include Wideman in on the discussions to follow. Lot of information to gather. Clearly Wideman has apologized over the incident already accepting responsibility for his actions whether purposeful or not.
I don't think you can base much, if any, on player reaction to whether it was intentional or not
Let me put it this way.
You're walking down the street, when someone bumps you, whom you didn't see coming at all. How you respond to that person is influenced heavily by their immediate response. You can tell pretty much immediately if they were doing something stupid which led to the bump, or in was completely an accident.
Same principle here. Wideman in no way acts like anything other a completely accidental bump in the context of a game happened. The refs and others on the ice could see this right away and concluded it was almost certainly accidental.
Wideman's character and history in the league would also suggest that he's telling the truth.
Meanwhile every other NHL board I've gone to has been largely in favour of a suspension.
Nevermind the 50/50 poll split...
Edit: Although perhaps it's just convenient for the league to ignore this? Doing so would avoid bringing attention to Wideman having not gone to the quiet room despite apparently being so dazed that he unintentionally crosschecked a linesman.
good thing its not up to other NHL boards full of people who have never played a contact sport and watched a 5 second clip out of context
