John Tavares had enough of a net front battle and took matters into his own hands, slashing the wrist of Vinnie Desharnais. It can’t happen, but it points to a desperate need in change of the standard for acceptable conduct during net front battles.
@Edmonton Oilers
20 Comments
8 games would be insane.
I suspect the league took into account the slew foot on Tavares. That's dangerous too, especially in front of the net where JT could go down and take a slap shot to the face. Perhaps the league sent a message to ALL players. Don't slash to injure, and if you slew foot, we aren't going to protect you.
Youre out of your mind if you think thats worthy of 8 games lmfao. Delete your channel, you can not be this clueless and expect for people to take you seriously
Newfound respect for JT
How do You know he was intentionally targeting his wrist?? You don’t know that 100%
I know the slash was bad but 8 games? Absolutely not. I’m not even a Leaf’s fan.
The first crosscheck by Desharnais was to Tavares' wrist. Using your stick as a weapon is wrong on all accounts and should be removed from hockey.
As a general fan with no dog in the fight, that's a great trade off for Desharnais and the Oilers. Use a 12 min, third pairing defensman to take off the other team's captain + 1st line goal scorer. Tavares needed to keep his cool here!
Agreed Tavares has to get suspended, at least a game. But Tavares also needed to retaliate, players gotta defend themselves out there
The actions of Desharnais is a hockey play. The coaches give an ear full for defenseman letting opponents stand in front of the net, unimpeded. Ask, Bieska how many players he let stand there without impunity. It is understood that to go to the front of the net is to pay the price. No matter what it says in the rule book.
However, what JT did was a blatant hack to the hand with intent to injure. This should have been a 5 minute major at the time and JT should have been kicked out of the game. I wonder if Kardri did what JT did would he have gotten a major penalty? I am sure he would have.
Five games for targeting. Then break his wrist and leg.
Taveras did not target. He reacted. Your commentary sucks. retaliation penalty; no problem. Without being rued, have you ever played hockey? I have and Desharnaisn is lucky he didn't get punched out! With all do respect
I understand what you are saying, but Desharnais more pushed him and annoyed him, players get cross checked a lot harder in front of the net than that and slash them across the shins.
I do agree the push on the back of the skate or knee is dangerous and gets close to the realm of a slew foot. You can't call it because he didn't fall, but in cases where they do fall, it should be a 2 min penalty plus a $2500 fine. The reason I would only give 2 min is that it is done to distract them and not injure them, where a slew foot is an attempt to injure.
If Tavares was mad, he should ha be slashed Vinny on the shins where the player at least doesn't get hurt. An attack above the glove will break a bone 30% of the time and is a pure intent to injure and I agree with your 8 game suspension.
I don't agree with the statement of the players policing themselves isn't working because the players are not allowed to police themselves as that is done through fighting and that is getting pushed out of the game. If a slash like that resulted in having to fight someone, it would reduce those offenses, the problem is that once a player reaches a certain number of fights, they get suspended and since you don't want your skilled players instigating fights, it is up to bottom 6 players to do that and with slashes and potential injury plays happening multiple times a game, try least paid players will be suspended more often and lose the most money. If Tavares knew he would have to answer the bell, likely to a bigger, stronger player, he would have taken that time to focus his slash on Vinny's shins, probably get 2 minutes and not worry about being held accountable for his actions.
This biggest issue is the league is still being to lenient on suspensions. There are probably 50 times a season when no suspension is given on a dangerous play, when at least 1-2 games should be given and every other suspension is at least only half as long as is should be. If more 6-15 game suspensions were handed out, dangerous plays would quickly almost disappear, especially the premeditated ones. Get rid of the suspension for too many fights, remove the instigator when a fight happens after a dangerous play and then the players will actually police themselves.
Leaf fans also need to realize that Bunting is one of the worse in the league for cheap shots and yet he almost never had to answer the bell, so if calls will change for that type of play, expect the Leafs to be on the penalty kill far more often.
The other thing that was a joke in the Leafs Oilers game is the Oilers only getting 3 power plays. This is becoming a trend for them as in the past 10 or so games, they are averaging less than 2 PP's a game while giving up 4-5 per game, this is clearly an attempt by referees to not let the best PP in over 30 years to win games because of the PP, but when the average is over 4 PP's per team a game, less than 2 for such a long stretch doesn't pass the smell test. Heck, Connor should be drawing 4 per game and yet he has only drawn 3 more PP's than Bunting and anyone that knows anything about hockey knows that with McDavids speed and skill, he should lead the penalties draw by at least how much he leads the scoring race. Matthews, Draisaitl, Marner, Kucherov, Pasternak, Peterson and MacKinnon should all be drawing way more penalties as well.
The best solution is to call the rule book as it is written and not how the refs want to manage the game, and more importantly, call it that same way in the playoffs. Sure, we will have a half a season or maybe a full season where half the game is powerplays, but players will change and coaches will reduce ice time to those that commit more sins.
I grew up watching hockey in the late 70's and 80's do I know what brutal hockey looks like and I really enjoyed it at the time, but it isn't good for the game. I'm okay with reducing fighting but you can't focused on the fighting and not call all the other penalties either as it is those penalties that cause injuries, injuries in fighting that are not self inflicted (braking a hand) very rarely happen, less than 5% of NHL concussions occur during a fight but that is the most focused on area to stop. It's ridiculous
I do not accept. Sorry but if you watch the rest of the game it's not the only dirty play Edmonton played. Toronto had it and started dealing their own justice.
If that was pk Suban it would've been called right away or anyone else jus cause its Tavares
As a Leafs fan I constantly see refs let dangerous actions like this go. Tavares had to teach them a lesson that he can't be pushed around. In the same game McDavid got away with so much but was only called after retaliation from Matthews. Just cause they are elite players doesn't excuse them from game law. Refs are constantly endangering players from all teams because of their arrogance in their take of the rule book. There's constant argument of "let them play" but not when this is endangering the players. This is all the refs fault and no suspension was the right call. For a guy like Tavares 5000 is nothing but the same slap on the wrist. I agree with the call.
You hit the nail on the head. Penalty should have been called before the slash.
2 mins for each player was an ok call in this instance. (In many other instances in this game it was terrible) If the ref missed the intention to harm fine. Shit happens fast, but upon league review. A minimum game suspension.
Take some…give some
Net front battles are so tame now. Regardless, all D-men are obliged to clear the front of the net or make it as miserable a place to be as possible or they will lose their jobs to someone who's willing to do the dirty work. I don't think this is the first time Tavares has been mildly crosschecked to be sure. What I find funny is that when the whistle blows, players often exhibit behavior that would constitute roughing under regular game play. It's like you can't get a penalty after the whistle.
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