View Full Version : Chara Suspended
Madferret
12-03-05, 12:25 PM
Chara Suspended
TSN.ca Staff
Zdeno Chara's fight on Friday with Tim Gleason of the Los Angeles Kings will cost the Senators' defenceman a suspension and his coach Bryan Murray a fine.
Chara was given an instigating penalty for the fight, which took place with less than four minutes remaining. A new rule added in the off-season says a player who gets an instigating penalty in the final five minutes will get a one-game suspension and the coach of that player will get a $10,000 fine.
The NHL has the freedom to go back and review the situation - like they did with Shane Doan and Wayne Gretzky last week - but Chara and Murray's case is considered by the league to be a textbook example of why the rule was put in place.
If only Chara was a Coyote..
I wonder when Avery is going to get suspended if ever?
That's total BS. Chara is a top player who logs 26 minutes per game! (highest on the team) Textbook? no way... Campbell himself said that rule is for guys who are low minute players i.e. designated fighters.
I watched that game and it was real chippy. Avery was running around acting like a dink as usual.
Watching Chara toss Gleason around, man... you need some big set to square off with the Z man. (but then again Gleason didn't have much choice)
Iced Tea
12-03-05, 1:04 PM
What a joke.
Chara isn't a goon who plays 5 minutes per game and has the sole purpose of starting fights. Where does Campbell get off giving Chara a suspension and Murray a fine when he gave Gretzky and Doan the free pass? Campbell shows nothing has changed at the league office when it comes to handing out discipline; he's still wishy washy and reactionary depending on who he is dealing with. If Chara's coach was another former hockey great like say Bobby Orr or Mark Messier, dollars to doughnuts, Campbell gives them a free pass too.
The rule was designed to be straightforward yet can be overruled as Campbell sees fit. Why even have the rule in the first place if he's going to make up new sub rules as he goes along? Soon Campbell will be rescinding the delay of game penalty for shooting the puck over the glass in your own end but only for home teams or teams with purple on their jerseys or the team his wife likes. :rolleyes:
What a farce, how can Campbell expect to retain the slightest shred of integrity or respect with such a blatant double-standard?
You have to wonder if he really knows who Zdeno Chara is.
slapshot™
12-03-05, 2:37 PM
Is this the incident where Gleason turtled (or am I thinking of something else)?
If that's the one, then the punishment is just wrong.
Instigator rule remains the worst in all of pro-sports.
Is this the incident where Gleason turtled (or am I thinking of something else)?
If that's the one, then the punishment is just wrong.
I was kind of half watching it with the sound off... but Gleason did turtle at least towards the end. He was getting Chara'd - you know - hanging on for dear life LOL.
It really wasn't much of a brawl. And it was definitely not your textbook garbage time goon fest.
The only thing I guess is that Chara went straight out to fight somebody immediately after Chris Kelly lost one to the bigger Jeff Cowan. It was kinda obvious... so even though Chara's no goon, it was a planned payback.
How it was any worse than Doan though is beyond me.
THE HACK
12-03-05, 3:29 PM
After the league let Doan and Gretzky off the hook they should do the same and let Chara and Murray off the hook too!Better yet just scrap this stupid rule because right now the NHL once again looks like it has no clue how to run its league,suprise suprise!!!
Cheers
I agree the rule is just dumb. Especially since they are selectively enforcing it.
A few years back when Trottier had his short-lived stint as Rangers head coach... He sent Kristof Oliwa out to take a face-off with a few seconds left in the game. Oliwa didn't even look at the puck, but rather delivered a vicous butt-end to the other guy (Jody Shelley? can't remember). Just clobbered the crap out of him. It was real cheap and dirty.
Oliwa got 10 games and Trottier 2.
The moral of the story is... when it's blatant goon time, every body knows it. You don't need a special rule.
Mel the heartless bastard knows. :cry:
NHL losses more credibility. Although it is what the rules state should happen, Doan got off for essentially the same thing. And with Campbell's explanation of why Doan's didn't warrant a suspension, Chara should have gotten off. His reasoning was that Doan was their captain, best player, and played a lot of minutes. Thus, it was concluded that Doan wasn't being sent out there to send a message.
Obviously, Chara should be excluded as well with that logic. He's hands down the best d-man we had with Redden being out (not to mention in the whole Conference), is our assistant captain, and he was due for a shift. We may have even been on the PK/PP at the time due to all the penalties, where he plays even more minutes.
No Chara on Monday and Redden is also doubtful. Havlat is hurt too. This idiocy may cost us a win vs. the Panthers.
charlio lemieux
12-03-05, 5:03 PM
Some things of note in comparison.
1. Vishnevski didn't even get a penalty. Whether that meant anything to Campbell, I don't know.
2. Doan instigated after there had been play. Although after the whistle is supposed to be worse.???
3. Chara was clearly not on the ice to play hockey. He didn't even look at the puck.
4. Chara spent 6 seconds, after the puck drop, antagonising Gleason before the anouncer says they've started fighting.
Those are a few differences in the two fights. What impact they made on Campbell is unknown.
So again Gleason takes a beating becuase of Sean Apery?
Might be easier on Gleason if he just beat the snot out of Apery himself and told him to smarten the hell up.
I wish I had any amount of talent with photoshop these days.. all sorts of fun could be had with Sean Avery and a turtle.
The NHL is going to continue having idiots like Sean Avery giving the league a bad name because of the instigator rule.
MadDevil
12-03-05, 7:35 PM
NHL losses more credibility. Although it is what the rules state should happen, Doan got off for essentially the same thing. And with Campbell's explanation of why Doan's didn't warrant a suspension, Chara should have gotten off. His reasoning was that Doan was their captain, best player, and played a lot of minutes. Thus, it was concluded that Doan wasn't being sent out there to send a message.
Obviously, Chara should be excluded as well with that logic. He's hands down the best d-man we had with Redden being out (not to mention in the whole Conference), is our assistant captain, and he was due for a shift. We may have even been on the PK/PP at the time due to all the penalties, where he plays even more minutes.
No Chara on Monday and Redden is also doubtful. Havlat is hurt too. This idiocy may cost us a win vs. the Panthers.
Do two wrongs make a right? Because the NHL made a mistake letting Gretzky/Doan off, they should make another mistake and do the same with Murray/Chara? Yes it is BS that Chara gets nailed with it, but it looked to me like his entire purpose at the time was to go after Gleason, rather than playing hockey.
Do two wrongs make a right?
In some cases, not all. I'm a firm believer in an eye for an eye. It's more about consistancy here though.
Because the NHL made a mistake letting Gretzky/Doan off, they should make another mistake and do the same with Murray/Chara?
Yes, they should. You can't treat some people differently than others. It's even more important they don't play games here because Phoenix inolved Gretzky and that could make them look pretty bad, going soft on one side just because they had Wayne. What's worse, they justified Doan getting off because he's a talented player, their captain, etc and wouldn't be sent on to drop the gloves. That applies to Chara too. Even more so due to our circumstances with Redden being hurt and all. However, both players being physical and involved in such a heated contest decided to toss 'em.
Yes it is BS that Chara gets nailed with it, but it looked to me like his entire purpose at the time was to go after Gleason, rather than playing hockey.
He hadn't been on for a few minutes and was due for a shift (http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20052006/SC020386.HTM). He leads out team in ice-time so the odds of him being on the ice are pretty good at any time. Big Z is also our #1 defenseman and easily the East's defensive MVP among skaters as far as I'm concerned. Fisher (who already fought Avery that night) for one was available if we wanted an enforcer. Had we wanted to started a fight we would've had him do it as he's not as much of a loss in the event of injury. It just happened to be at a tense time and Chara/Gleason decided to drop the gloves. Both were on the ice to play hockey, but fighting is part of the game too.
The Sens have launched an appeal. Although I doubt it stands, it does help further expose the stupidty of the NHL and how wrong they are in this situation. They put themselves in this mess with the handling of the Phoenix incedent.
MadDevil
12-03-05, 10:09 PM
Don't get me wrong, I agree that the NHL completely screwed up the Phoenix/Anaheim incident, but I don't know as if that screwup should be the benchmark the NHL sets. If they had let the Sens off the hook for this, players wouldn't be as afraid to start crap at or near the end of games (not saying Chara purposely started anything). It's unfortunate for Chara that he was "made an example of", but I think something had to be done (although I've seen worse go completely unpunished by the NHL).
No doubt the NHL is one of, if not the worst leagues out there in terms of suspensions and fines. They seem to let stuff go the first time, but the next time somebody does it they get nailed for it. There is definitely some preferential treatment, not to mention complete inconsistency. It's frustrating as hell to see certain players get nailed for something that another player got away with.
As for Chara, it looks to me like as soon as the puck dropped he was after Gleason (I'm only going on the replays I've seen, so I could be wrong). I'm sure he wasn't put out there specifically for that purpose, but he seemed to go straight for Gleason after the faceoff. Seems like it's picking a fight to me.
Of course, none of this would probably even be a problem if the NHL dumped the instigator rule...
Darsehole Tucker
12-04-05, 1:08 AM
They set a precident with Phoenix. They should stick by that precident. As Mel said, there isn't need for a special rule if real goonery has taken place. Chara has a legitimate cause for appeal based on the Doan precident but Campbell isn't having any of it. There isn't really too much we can do about it. Now there's a "goon" vs. "no goon" classification for the rule. Doan is a "no goon" apparently but Chara (despite being one of the top 5 d-men in the league) gets the "goon" tag. I guess there goes the Lady Byng ;)
Canadian26
12-04-05, 3:00 AM
Why is anyone even suprised at this, it had to be expected. Unfourtantly it was chara that got nailed this time, im sure if any player had done the same thing now Campbell woulda reacted the same way, cause he took a lot of heat for the Doan sistuation (campbells just an retard, although we all knew that already). I agree with PDO the Instigatorrule is the worse sports rule ever, it should just be thrown out.
Madferret
12-04-05, 7:27 PM
Zdeno Chara had no problems with the suspension being upheld and said he'd do it again if the same situation arose
No regrets for Chara
OTTAWA (CP) -- Ottawa defenceman Zdeno Chara might have one less game to play and be a little lighter in the wallet, but he has no regrets about his fight late in Friday night's game versus the Los Angeles Kings that resulted in his one-game suspension and a $10,000 fine to Senators coach Bryan Murray.
"It was kind of out of control and I decided to do what was right for my team," Chara said Sunday before Ottawa left to begin a four-game road trip, beginning Monday in Florida.
Ottawa had the day off Saturday when NHL executive vice-president and director of hockey operations Colin Campbell dished out the punishment to Chara and the Senators resulting from the late stages of Ottawa's 5-1 victory over the Kings at the Corel Centre a night earlier.
After the third period started with the ejection of Chris Neil for a hit from behind on L.A.'s Dustin Brown, a series of fights broke out as the period wore on, culminating in Chara receiving an instigator penalty, fighting major, 10-minute misconduct and game misconduct after a fight with Kings defenceman Tim Gleason with 3:21 remaining.
Under league rules, any player instigating a fight in the final five minutes of a game receives an automatic suspension and the team is fined. Chara had no problems with the ruling and said he'd do it again if the same situation arose.
Murray joked Sunday that he'd be short on cash for Christmas gifts as a result of the fine. Chara suggested that he'd pick up the tab, however.
The Senators were particularly incensed with Kings' pest Sean Avery, who punched the helmet off the head of goaltender Dominik Hasek and was confronted by Ottawa enforcer Brian McGrattan.
"He's running the goalie, he's punching the goalie," Chara said. "What happens next?"
L.A.'s Jeff Cowan responded by fighting Senators centre Chris Kelly and later, the six-foot-nine, 260-pound Chara took on the six-foot-one, 214-pound Gleason, a player who's not known for his fighting skills.
"I respect the (NHL's) decision," Chara said. "It was emotional.
"At that point, you're frustrated. You don't really look at how much time is left in the game. You just do what's right for your team.
"That's not my style of the game to pick a guy who's not physical. It's nothing personal. That's my first priority, to stick up for my team."
Murray was disappointed with the suspension, which will leave him without his top two defenceman since Wade Redden is still out with a knee injury.
"It's always tough to lose one of your top players for an after-effect in a previous game," he said. "(Chara) got carried away . . . and was upset about Kelly getting beat up by Cowan when Cowan wouldn't even talk to Neil or McGrattan so he responded accordingly.
"Brian McGrattan has apologized to me twice for going after Avery. What happens with me is people basically suggest that I called down the line to send Zdeno Chara to fight at the end of a game when you know there's a $10,000 (fine) and a game suspension. To have that implied by some people really disturbs me."
After years of being considered too soft to be successful, the incident is the latest example of the Senators' re-invention as a bigger, stronger team under Murray than it was under former coach Jacques Martin.
"We have a tough team now," said goaltender Ray Emery, who replaced Hasek following Chara's fight Friday to protect Ottawa's 40-year-old starting netminder. "Sometimes in the past I think the strategy was to start to bully this team around and that's definitely not going to happen -- it might even go the other way now -- and that's a good thing.
"We're proud that we stick up for each other and we can handle ourselves if teams want to take that approach against us."
The Senators called up Tomas Malec, 24, from AHL Binghamton on Sunday to take Chara's place against the Panthers.
Ottawa will return home briefly before heading west to face Vancouver, Calgary and Colorado on Friday, Saturday and next Monday, respectively.
Thanks to the schedule that's top-heavy with games against division rivals, Friday's game was the Senators first taste of life outside of the Eastern Conference. At 20-4-0, Ottawa has fared well against its own conference and made whipping boys out of the rest of the Northeast Division, going 12-1-0-0 and outscoring opponents 64-25.
So the Senators are eager to see how they fare against some fresh opposition that they figure will test them again.
"I don't think we're surprising very many teams right now," Emery said. "You can tell by our record and just by the start that we've had that we've got a really good team, so teams come prepared to play and we expect that.
"They get up for games against us and we would other elite-level teams in the league."
You go Z..
Zdeno knows.
Where's the suspension for Apery?
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