[News] Kassian suspended 5 games for high stick on Gagner. Weise suspended rest of preseason

[Vinny01]

Kassian has size, skill, and a mean streak but lacks the hockey iq to make it as a top 6 on a good team in my opinion. He will be a 20goal 40pt at best I think

[Fire]

Kassian did it on purpose. Sure he didn't want to serious hurt Gagner but I bet Bertuzzi didn't want to end Moore's career either.

Suspension was right.

[Erick Estrada]

The NHL is the best. Suspending players for preseason games is akin to a CFL fine. Complete joke.

[d_phaneuf]

thought he would get 2 regular season games because the Canucks/Oilers play in their 2nd game

but 5 makes no sense, considering what else has gotten 5, and Wiese's being a more dangerous play

if Kassian's stick hit Gagner in the chest and he didn't get injured it wouldn't have been a suspension, Shanahan just has no consistency

[AC]

[Machiavelli]

^ Good god.

[Poe969]

can someone post it, I didn't get a chance to see it

[AC]

Originally Posted by Poe969

can someone post it, I didn't get a chance to see it

http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/con...&cmpid=nhl-twt

[Poe969]

what a @$*% move. That guy needs to be taught a lesson.

[Meers]

Yeah, the player has to control his stick. So a suspension is warranted.

But five games for accidental contact by a player with no history? Three seemed more appropriate.

On this basis, Kessel should get 10 games - but as we all know, that simply won't happen.

[sun]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

Kassian has size, skill, and a mean streak but lacks the hockey iq to make it as a top 6 on a good team in my opinion. He will be a 20goal 40pt at best I think

I agree with this. People are hoping he will light it up with the sedins, but from what I've seen, he's too stupid without the puck. Never seems to be at the right place - puck doesn't follow him around. Low hockey sense. Has nice hands when he gets it though. Hopefully will be a mediocre player for years to come.

[Wolven]

1) I don't get how anyone can say that Kassian's slash is accidental? Do you think he was aiming for the glass with that wild swing? To me it looked like he was obviously swinging his arm and stick, fully extended, in Gagner's general direction and as dumb luck would have it, he made contact with the jaw.

If you wanna get all "real world example" about it, think about it like this. Give a guy a gun. He happens to be a terrible shot. He tries to shoot another guy. Does it really matter where the bullet ends up? What he is doing is terrible. If he happens to shoot the other guy in the face as opposed to the toe there is an obvious difference in the result but either way the crazy guy with the gun is in the wrong.

2) Kessel on the other hand hits a guy with his stick, deliberately. The Kessel lawyer is going to say "self defense" as a much larger guy was taking it upon himself to attack Kessel and Kessel was doing everything in his power to try to scare off the much larger guy. Kinda like if you are being attacked by a bear.

Now all I am saying is that this is my opinion after watching the video once and I seem to be the only one since no one else has said it. Kessel defended himself and he used his stick to spear and slash his attacker because he sure and heck wasn't going to go toe-to-toe in a fight with him.

I agree with calling Kessel a number of things. ie. Call him a chicken for not fighting Scott. But I really don't get the whole idea that Kessel was anything other than the defender in that situation and he happened to use the best tools he had in his hands to defend himself.

I definitely expect Kessel's punishment to be less than Kassian's based on who the aggressor was. Kassian attacked Gagner, Scott attacked Kessel. Personally, I'd bet on Kessel getting 0-1 games and Clarkson getting a suspension for jumping in.

[Oling_Roachinen]

You're missing the second slash Kessel goes for. At this point Clarkson is on the ice and it's 6 vs 5, Scott is tied up and Kessel still slashes his ankle. It's that one that, as far as I'm concerned, deserves much more than this. Regardless of outcome.

[Flamenfame]

I'm glad Kassian got the suspension, fully deserved imo. I can see the Canucks goons trying to take Liberties on Baertschi as well as Monahan as well.

[Wolven]

Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen

You're missing the second slash Kessel goes for. At this point Clarkson is on the ice and it's 6 vs 5, Scott is tied up and Kessel still slashes his ankle. It's that one that, as far as I'm concerned, deserves much more than this. Regardless of outcome.

I didn't miss it. I am just not as sure as some of you where self-defense ends and attacking begins. In reality (as opposed to slow-motion zoom land), all of Kessel's actions take place in a 3 second window. Considering people give a 5-second rule to eating something off the floor, I think it is fair to give a 5-second rule to self defense. So, I still wouldn't give Kessel more than Kassian.

Heck, I'm not even sure I would give Kessel anything more than a 5 minute penalty. Watching the video again, it looks like the only people that wanted to fight was Scott and the goalies. Kessel had no interest in fighting Scott and when Kessel got a new dance partner, all they did was tie each other up and skate around the rink.

If Scott hadn't tried to start a fight with a guy half his size nothing following would have happened. Hoping for Kessel to get a suspension seems to be a lot like hoping for an almost-rape victim to get charged for successfully fighting off their attacker.

[Erick Estrada]

Doesn't even look like Gagner with his mouth all messed up. He's going to be dealing with that for a while with surgery, healing, eating through a straw, and IMO Kassian got off pretty lightly here as it looked like he swung his stick in Gagner's direction with intent. What happens next time when it's an eye and a player is permanently blinded? Should have got double digit games IMO. Thanks Canucks for bringing another scumbag player in the conference.

[V]

Geez, you've got some impressive analogies.

Guy with a gun, rape victims. You don't overstate things at all...

[fotiou22]

Wolven's found a good analogy. Kessel's slashes are almost comically feeble. Whether he's intentionally trying to mitigate the damage to his attacker or else just isn't very good at slashing—it's impossible to watch this video and believe that Scott, whose actions are pre-meditated, was in danger at any point. Kessel, on the other hand, is clearly terrified.

The idea that Kessel should have to turtle or take a public beating from a guy who can barely play hockey is ridiculous.

[Plett25]

Kassian "accidentally" hit Gagner the same way the Simpson kids are about to "accidentally" hit/kick each other...

[Sport Psych]

Kassian has clearly watched video of Glenn Anderson from back in the day. Anderson was about as "careless" with his stick as any player I've ever seen.