Rafalski was not involved in the hit. I think we all have Rafalski on the brain (god, I hope he plays in Game 4) but he wasn’t involved in the hit at all.

I think you have some pretty good points. The league clearly isn’t interested in reducing violent acts in hockey. In playoff time they have consistently failed to hand out reasponable suspensions for high hits or cross checks. I thought Mike Ribero got away with murder on Osgood last year, as well as Kunitz this year with a cross check to the neck of Washington’s goalie, and now Brown. The puzzling thing is that they hand out 6 games to Brashear for a similar hit. There’s simply no consistancy, I guess the league must veiw Brashear as expendable as compared to Brown or Kunitz.

I agree, sooner or later someone is going to get killed. Players are just too big and too fast at this point.

In regards to Holmstrom’s elbow on Wisniewski… Earl Sleek, what are you even saying? Yes, Holmstrom hit Wisniewski in the head with his elbow, but it did not seem intentional, nor was it the cause of Wisniewski’s injury. At worst the play was a two min. minor for elbowing acciedntally. Why would the league suspend Holmstrom. Again, people are confusing intent with outcome. Brown meant to injure Hudler, it doesn’t matter that he didn’t, he should be suspended. Homer didn’t mean to hurt Wisniewski, but as he was injured (by a slap shot more than anything else) you’re demanding that he be suspended?

No way Homer gets suspended for an obviously accidental elbow. The fact that no penalty was called is another testament to the ineptitude of the officials in that game. They also missed an obvious intentional elbow by Corey Perry on Zetterberg after the whistle. It wasn’t even in a scrum, he just skated into him and elbowed him. Perry is definitely showing how dirty of a player he is in this postseason. He should have been suspended for many games for the elbow he put on Jonathan Cheechoo in the first round.

As far as Brown’s hit on HUDLER… Wow can’t believe you wrote this whole blog about Rafalski… Brown got a major penalty and a game misconduct, both of which he deserved. I seriously doubt any intent to injure however. Try to take the homer glasses off before making assumptions. Brown, like all of the Ducks, was over zealous in making that hit and was careless. He should have noticed what position Hudler was in before he hit him. You just can’t lead with your arms, elbow or not, to a guy’s head. The play happened to fast for intent to injure. The league was right about no suspension.

However, Kunitz should have gotten suspended for his crosscheck to Varlamov.

The officiating in this last game is the only thing I am upset about in this series. Sure the no goal was awful, but the refs have just decided to call the dumbest penalties and put away the whistles for the obvious ones. Homer elbows Wisniewski, Perry elbows Zetterberg… no calls. Kronwall is obviously interfered with while chasing the puck behind his net, I also seem to remember a new rule about that because of Kurtis Foster’s broken leg, then he proceeds up the ice and gets called for interference himself. Stuart’s interference penalty which led to the Ducks second goal was just a horrible call. Then the goal that’s scored on the power play was scored because Osgood had to play the roll of bowling pin, while the Ducks were the ball. No way that goal stands if it is Holmstrom in front of the net.

Let’s get hypothetical for a moment. If, say, Kronvall lays the exact same hit to Chris Pronger with the same effect—at the Joe Louis arena—I bet I wouldn’t hear one peep out of the Detroit faithful. I bet I wouldn’t see one blog post anywhere in Detroit nation talking about the seriousness and severity of hits to the head. Instead, I’m sure, I’d see lots of ‘Holy shit, Kronvall lit up that idiot Pronger!’

It’s really, really easy to argue about the principles of the game when something bad happens to your own team’s players. Conversely it’s also really, really easy to shrug your shoulders and say, ’That’s just Hockey’ whenever it happens to the opposing team.

Everyone’s guilty of both. However some go about it with more grace than others.

Also, Hudler was cut by his visor. No visor, no blood. Two minutes for interference for Brown—maybe even two more for roughing—and a woozy Hudler for a couple of shifts. Suck it up, guys.

I personally believe that no matter what team you are a fan of if a player does something against the rules then they should suffer the consequences. For Brown I do believe he hit Hudler with intent to injure. He hit him hard and showed no sign of restraint. Head shots are not good no matter which way you slice it. So Brown not getting suspended is a load of crap and yes I am a Red Wings fan but if it was my team I would still say suspend in the same situation.

Joehas you are retarded! you must be a bias redwings fan just like VS. and NBC. It was a clean hit…the redwings player had the puck, got rid of it and then BAM! got leveled…Brown didn’t raise his elbow or anything..and the players visor is probably what cut him. Just because a player starts to bleed doesnt mean he should get kicked out of a game or suspended for a game. It was not a hit to the head, he simply got rocked…watch the reply…and stop being so stupid.