The only thing that is obvious is you don't know exactly how other people would react. Pretending that you do know and can guarantee it is hilariously ridiculous.
Injury. We know the NHL punishes based on injury. Also attention. That play got no attention. Can't recall ever seeing it before.
It's very likely that if the Wideman incident occurs on the same night as Mcjesus' return and highlight goal and Henderson gets up and is fine, that we never hear about this again.
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Just curious but why are people overly upset about the ruling? Wideman makes a lot of money. He will be fine and really the way fans were going on about how bad he's been this season I don't see what's to be outraged about.
They disagree with it maybe..?
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He was frustrated from being hit and losing the game....handily.
His response was indicative of where many of the Flames player's heads have been over the past number of games....in the clouds, no real focus.
Was it premeditated? No. Did he intend to hurt him? No. Was it on purpose? Yes. He had just got laid out and he was mad. He lost his temper and his focus and took it out on the ref.
He deserves the suspension.
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No, they are not even remotely comparable. One is a guy going in fast and has no where to go and collides with the referee. The other is a guy slowly making his way to the bench after taking a dirty hit and clearly cross checks the linesman from behind. Way different plays.
He did show concern. Once Wideman had his wits about him again he went and apologized to Henderson.
That's a nice story, but the footage of Wideman on the bench immediately afterward doesn't support it in the least.
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Injury. We know the NHL punishes based on injury. Also attention. That play got no attention. Can't recall ever seeing it before.
It's very likely that if the Wideman incident occurs on the same night as Mcjesus' return and highlight goal and Henderson gets up and is fine, that we never hear about this again.
Yeah, media exposure probably played a big deal. Wasn't it on the Today Show in the States or something? NHL probably doesn't like that.
Yeah but why? I mean he did flatten an official from behind after all and we all knew a suspension was coming. If you stand back and look at this from the point of view of a fan of a different team I would think most fans around the league are in agreement that 20 games is fair.
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Injury. We know the NHL punishes based on injury. Also attention. That play got no attention. Can't recall ever seeing it before.
It's very likely that if the Wideman incident occurs on the same night as Mcjesus' return and highlight goal and Henderson gets up and is fine, that we never hear about this again.
Pretty much. I think if twitter isn't around, and this doesn't end up on Good Morning America, suspension is zero and people don't even really notice... but if you make it big on the news, the NHL has to protect its image.
Either way, no big deal anyways... kind of playing out the season waiting for the draft.
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Just curious but why are people overly upset about the ruling? Wideman makes a lot of money. He will be fine and really the way fans were going on about how bad he's been this season I don't see what's to be outraged about.
Because the inconsistency the NHL has with all suspendible actions is infuriating. This is not 14 games worse than what carcillo did. Is it a suspension, Yes it is but 20 games? It is just ridiculous how the league has handled it because of the media
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So, this is cynical, but my immediate thought is that the league is fine with an appeal. They've sent their signal to their officials, which is, "we are on your side, we will protect you, we will come down hard on anything resembling abuse of official". Then they'll get an appeal that reduces the suspension to a more reasonable number.
EDIT: Okay, seems like other people had the same thought.
First appeal is to Bettman who I assume will uphold. Then it goes to an independent arbitrator. So could be a while I'd guess.
I'm no criminal minds style profiler, but I don't really get the intentional angle either.
If he is of the mind to intentionally target a referee, why the linesman? Just because he is wearing stripes? Because Henderson represents the refereeing fraternity?
Or was it just a careless "I'm injured and need to get to the bench, get out of my way!"
He was shaken up by the hit, and I don't know about you but when I get jarred I get really frustrated. I think he was upset as he went to the bench, then he saw the striped shirt in front of him.
I think it was a snap decision. Despite all the voices in him saying "don't do it, don't lash out", he let his frustration get the best of him and he just up and decked the official. I've made those decisions in my life too (albeit to far lesser consequences), so I can totally see it playing out in his mind and emotions while it happened.
This might be a lame comparison, but once I bumped my head on an open cabinet door. It took me a moment to register what happened, and I was in a lot of pain. I just got so mad and frustrated with myself, the brilliant idea to slam my hand into the cabinet to close it flashed across my mind...and I did it...and I absolutely destroyed the cabinet door. Dumb move. If I had just swallowed my pride I wouldn't have been out the $120 to replace the door.
__________________ "It's a great day for hockey."
-'Badger' Bob Johnson (1931-1991)
"I see as much misery out of them moving to justify theirselves as them that set out to do harm." -Dr. Amos "Doc" Cochran
I think this is a horrible decision by the officials in a clearly unfortunate accident with a patently non-violent, compliant and respectful player. The message they are sending is... I can't even phrase their message, really. What would that be?
We don't care if it was accidental;
We don't care if an official was at a wrong place at a wrong time (high collision area during change);
We don't care if there were ANY mitigating circumstances occurring at the game immediately prior to the collision (huge hit on a player);
We don't care if there was no history of prior carelessness.
YOU SHALT PAY!
This is hockey! Accidents on ice do happen, unfortunately, you have chosen a profession that is subject to that risk. I have zero excuses for deliberate abuse of officials and would advocate for maximum penalties and fines in those cases. But to punish a player for an unfortunate accident so severely is absurd.
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"An idea is always a generalization, and generalization is a property of thinking. To generalize means to think." Georg Hegel
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