From the video it looks like Wideman looked up in a daze and saw a direct path to the bench door. He made up his mind and began skating. When the linesman backed up he was too slow to react and avoid him.
Wideman probably has the least amount of hockey sense on the team so I would count this as a dumb mistake he made while dazed.
That's a silly argument. We're all trying to find the most obvious answer. Occam's Rasor.
What are you even on about? The most obvious answer? Occam's Rasor only addresses minimizing assumptions. You are not required to assume anything to determine how obviously intentional this was. Watch the video.
This is hilarious... How is the poll that close?
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The league will probably ask the linesman that was hit and the other officials what their opinion is.
And it seems pretty obvious that if any of the officials thought for a second that it was intentional, Wideman would have been ejected from the game. The fact that he didn't even get a penalty speaks volumes.
But let the internet warriors and hashtag activists have their fun.
No it doesn't. It speaks only to the fact that Wideman was so far behind the play that none of the officials saw it.
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What are you even on about? The most obvious answer? Occam's Rasor only addresses minimizing assumptions. You are not required to assume anything to determine how obviously intentional this was. Watch the video.
This is hilarious... How is the poll that close?
Because people who actually watched the game knew what happened.
What's hilarious is people making conclusions about where Wideman was looking, how much time he had to react when he was right up to the linesman and so on, based on a short video.
It's pretty clear to me what happened. He was hurt, staggering to the bench, wasn't looking, saw the linesman out of the corner of his eye and only had time to get his hands up. You can even see him jump to the side a little, but it wasn't in time. And the lineman went down hard not because he was "drilled" but because he was skating backwards and didn't expect a bump from behind. Knocks that are unseen are always worse.
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What are you even on about? The most obvious answer? Occam's Rasor only addresses minimizing assumptions. You are not required to assume anything to determine how obviously intentional this was. Watch the video.
This is hilarious... How is the poll that close?
Because determining intent is no more than a guess here?
Because, on the one hand, it looks bad, but on the other hand, there is absolutely no reason to hit a linesman and the obvious answer is accident?
Thus people fall on both sides?
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He will be suspended moreso because the Flames didn't pull him back and follow concussion protocol.
It's an optics thing.
If they pulled him to the dressing room, he could have claimed his head was fuzzy.
Because they didn't, they in turn admitted he was coherent, and thus what excuse really do you have to crosscheck a ref from behind?
Weather he was coherent or not, they will defer to the concussion protocol on this one and actually cover their asses.
So if Wideman does intend to viciously crosscheck him, how come it looks like Wideman hops backwards a little bit before contact? If his intent was to truly crosscheck him why alter his course at all, why not just skate through his check?
This is true - he was making a bee-line to the bench gate, it looks like he didn't see the linesman and jumped to try and get out of the way, which is completely consistent with what he said about it.
I don't even think he knew the guy was down that badly until after. I doubt he thought it was a hard contact - just an accidental bump, and he had to get off the ice.
His head was down for quite a while on the bench - he was obviously winded.
I think it likely was an "accident" in only the sense that he didn't go "I'm angry; time to cross check the linesman!"
I do think he was VERY dazed and disoriented, but that really doesn't make this situation better. It really just transfers the blame, as what were the Flames doing putting him back on the ice after getting his bell rung badly enough to have lost his marbles like that? I don't have a detailed knowledge of the concussion protocol, but that kind of situation merits investigation by the medical staff, and it looked like they just put him back out there.
It definitely does make the situation better - for Wideman.
And that is what the discussion is about: should he be suspended?
Whether or not he should have been subjected to concussion protocol is absolutely irrelevant to this discussion.
It is possible to be dazed from a hit and not have a concussion. Hence, why he didn't go to the dark room. Since the play was in the corner and he took his sweet time getting to the bench, no attention is on him so most people wouldn't think to thoroughly check him over. A quick "You okay?" followed by a "Yeah." is likely all that would have happened.
As for the hit. He tried to stop and realized that wasn't going to work. His immediate and completely natural reaction is to get his hands up to protect himself. If the ref hits him he risks getting his face smacked by the back of the ref's head. Putting his hands up is his natural defence to prevent that from happening. That isn't a decision, it's an instinct.
I don't believe he meant to hit him, and I don't think a suspension should happen. That said, given how it looks, I can understand if he does get disciplined for it. Give how I've felt about his play, I would welcome a suspension for Wideman.
Watch this video again (or for the first time if you missed it before)...
The Clifford hit on Neal (2:05) looks significantly worse than what Wideman did with a flying cross check to the face, but it was deemed accidental.
The Marleau hit on Burns (4:15) is very similar to the Wideman hit. Marleau is moving forward in a straight line, Burns is skating backwards. When Marleau realizes they're on a collision course, he tries to move out of the way and throws his hands up to protect himself. He ends up giving Burns a solid cross check from behind, knocking Burns to the ice as he skates away unharmed. Like Wideman, Marleau has no reason to take out Burns (assuming there isn't some unknown feud between them in the Sharks' room).
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Yah a slowed down replay makes it look malicious. But has anybody every just had their bell run? Vision is weak, he's trying to change and isn't focused. Sees body rapidly approaching and throws hands up in defense. Looks worse than it was, no way anybody who has played more than novice hockey would intentionally do that.
That's another thing....not every bell ringing is a concussion. It's not an automatic correlation, you can have your bell rung and shake it off and be ok after a few minutes.
Not making light of concussions but I have had them and I have had my bell rung...you can have one without the other.
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If he was dazed enough that it excuses hitting a linesman, then that looks REALLY bad on the Flames training staff. Why did he stay in the game after?
Because the league's arguments about taking concussions seriously is still mostly just talk. Wideman should have gone to the quiet room. He was clearly dazed, and he was clearly unfocused when he made contact with Henderson. So the trainer simply trusting Wideman's "I'm okay" should not have been good enough. But the players still don't want to leave the game, the teams are still too willing to look the other way, and the NHL's "concussion spotters" are still too busy eating nachos and drinking beers from their prime seats to notice anything. The lack of any action here re: potential concussion isn't the first such failure on the part of the league this year. It won't be the last either.
