Kronwall hit on Havlet

by jryno on May 23, 2009 3:11 AM CDT

I have been up stewing over this hit. Well actually I am at work, and bored. But I have read and listened to numerous accounts and points regarding this hit. With the best coming from Mike Milbury, on Coast-to-Coast during the 2nd intermission. Milbury states, "That the NHL needs to put Halleren (sp) and Jackson on a bus and out of the playoffs." Seriously, the NHL is becoming the "NO Hitting League"

If you haven't seen this check it out.

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I am all for protecting players

But at some point the players have to protect themselves too. Havlat kept his head down (i know he was playing the puck) and he payed the price

Winging It In Motown

by Casey Richey on May 23, 2009 2:00 PM CDT reply actions

Making the call live

The Refs have to make the call without benefit of review, but I think that the call was way to excessive.

by PQwingsfan on May 25, 2009 3:20 AM CDT reply actions

the interesting thing was that they didn’t blow the whistle until Byfuglien came over and hit Kronwall. And I don’t think they decided really on the severity until they saw Havlat was injured

Winging It In Motown

by Casey Richey on May 25, 2009 8:04 AM CDT up reply actions

BS call

It was a BS call. I hope Havlat didn’t get seriously hurt, but they were not going to call a penalty until after the injury, that is wrong. Havlat should have kept his head up, he knows this, we know this, everyone knows this. We have taken hits just as brutal this series, only difference is we braced for the hit and no injuries resulted. You can’t call penalties based off of an injury, unless that penalty is a high stick or something of that nature. The game misconduct, was entirely inappropriate.

by rrasco on May 26, 2009 12:54 PM CDT reply actions

A beautiful, clean hit...

…with unfortunate circumstances.

-David
sixminutecynic.blogspot.com
www.piratesmix.com.

by pascaldupweevil on May 29, 2009 7:57 PM CDT reply actions

trying not to partial

the only reason i can think of for the call is that if you watch the replay it does appear that kronwall lead with is forearm which i believe is illegal. how ever i think the real reason was because it was in chicago and it knocked him out. i do have to agree that he had it coming he know kronwall was on the ice and he should have known to keep his head up. totally his fault.

by wingsfaningr on May 30, 2009 4:53 PM CDT reply actions

My 2 cents

I know this probably isn’t a hot topic anymore, but being a Pens fan I hadn’t really given this hit much thought until I ran across this post.

First of all, the legality of the actual hit is not really the main issue, but for arguments sake I went back and looked at some classic Scott Stevens hits for comparison. A lot of them look very similar to this one, and my opinion is that it was a clean hit. He elevated himself by extending his left leg, but not to the point of jumping off his skates. He gets good body lean and explodes through Havlat. That being said, he was absolutely trying to hurt him, otherwise he wouldn’t have used his height advantage to take his head off.

Back to the point. The penalty called was for interference, not roughing/elbowing/charging, so that should be the debate. The ref saw the puck some off the wall between Havlat’s skates, but he never touches it. It’s technically interference because he never has possesion (NHL Rulebook: "The last player to touch the puck, other than the goalkeeper, shall be considered the player in possession. "), but it would be a bit of a ticky-tacky call to make, and would have undoubtedly gone unnoticed had it been less violent. Since the refs decided to make the call they are also allowed to assess a major and a game misconduct (rules 56.4 and 56.5) due to the violent nature of the interference in question.

So, in the end Kronwall caused that penalty with his physicality. This sometimes happens when a guy is throwing his body around. It’s not like he knew Havlat wasn’t going to play the puck, but the league is trying to protect the players and if there’s any cause to make a call on a violent play like that they will do it more often than not.

Ok, so that was more like a dollar’s worth.

by puckhead45_82 on Jun 3, 2009 5:59 PM CDT reply actions