For two days I’ve patiently read the incessant whining from Capitol’s fans (and yes, some Thrasher’s fans) about how all fault for Wednesday’s brouhaha can be placed squarely on the shoulders of Andy Sutton and his “cheap shot” on Green with just over a minute left in the game. These complaints fall under two headings: Sutton is a cheap shot artist who does this all the time and it’s about darn time some team stood up against his brutality; and the Thrasher’s had the game in hand and there is no reason for aggressive play with so little time left. The Cheap ShotSutton’s hit didn’t merit anything more than a two minute roughing penalty. He’s a defenseman and he hit the guy with the puck when the opportunity presented itself. That’s what he gets paid for. Was the hit high? Yes. I’d prefer Sutton find a way to check Green without getting penalized too, but he was just coming onto the ice and needed to react quickly. Uncalled for in a Game You Will WinThis second argument is the one that really burns me. Anyone who thinks you stop playing aggressive defense because the end of regulation is near needs to have their head examined. Or better yet, go back and watch some tape of our early season loss to the Hurricanes. Our team learned the hard way this season that you can’t stop and take a breather when the final seconds are ticking off the clock. We’ve had teams score twice on us in under a minute. We’ve had a team score a game winning goal with half a second left on the clock. If those losses taught us ANYTHING it’s that we can’t blow off the last two minutes of the game. Thrasher fans who jumped on this bandwagon should be ashamed. We want our team to win and for that to happen we need them to play defense until the final horn sounds.
I’m sure my arguments won’t silence anyone, but the NHL rulings make it pretty clear where the league places the blame. On the Capital’s side you have $30,000 in fines to Hanlon, a three game suspension to Brashear, a one game suspension to Sutherby. On the Thrasher’s side $10,000 in fines to Hartley and a one game suspension to captain Mellanby. Frankly I’m surprised, and disappointed, that Hanlon didn’t receive as suspension of his own. He engineered the first three on three throw-down and I suspect he wanted to meet Hartley in the parking lot after the game and go at it Karate Kid style. One thing I do know, on December 15th I’ll be at Philips for the rematch.