171 replies to this topic

[dimitrym91]

I totally agree it's taking advantage of a vulnerable player and would pens fans be up in arms if it was Crosby or malkin of course they would, but like it or not according to the rules this was a clean play

All I'm saying is that he's coming full on at eriksson and he has made the decision to make that hit, he can't bail out last second and risk giving up an odd man rush, it's a tough play cause the d man basically put eriksson into a suicide pass situation

If eriksson should be mad at anyone it's his own teammate

That's a nice quote from Crosby, to bad it's about hits to the head and banning them, the thing is the orpik hit was not a hit to the head

[Gr8erade]

Steckel's hit on Crosby was an incidental hit that Crosby didn't see coming.   Orpik had a choice in whether to just take the body, or make a huge hit on Eriksson.  He chose to make a huge hit on a vulnerable player who wasn't expecting it.  The quote fits.

 

You and I both know that when a player elects to make that sort of clean hit on a vulnerable player, he should expect the other team to take exception.   Not all clean hits are good hits.

 

Don't think so? 

 

Ask Crosby.

[dimitrym91]

That's a very subjective thing, what is good to one player may not be to another and vice versa, orpik going at the speed he was and eriksson at the speed he was there was only one hit that could have happened there really, it was either a big hit or no hit, and there is nothing that says he can't make a big hit in that situation

The difference with the steckel hit is that Crosby was not playing the puck, eriksson was absolutely attempting to play it and the steckel hit was to the head, orpiks was not

Sure the other team will respond to a clean "dirty" hit but what Thornton did was above and beyond, a fight which he tried to do is fine by me but if orpik says no there really isn't much Thornton can do, you can't jump a guy because subjectively you didn't like the hit, and to think orpik was thinking about who he was hitting is silly and he wasn't thinking about eriksson concussion history what so ever

Orpik is trying to eliminate eriksson from the play and he was able to do just that, unfortunately he injured eriksson but to think there was anything malicious about that hit is silly

[Gr8erade]

There's nothing that says you can't make a big hit in that situation, except you've got Crosby saying, "but when you get hit like that (and he meant hit when vulnerable and not expecting it) there’s nothing you can do, there’s no way you can protect yourself. Those are things that hopefully (the NHL) pays more attention to."

It's called respect. And when a player doesn't show that to another player, that's when a Teammate comes calling. All teams usually follow that code.

No, not the slew foot incident. Everyone agrees that was wrong. But the first time, and Orpik wanted none of it. I'm sure that infuriated Thornton, who has until later in the game, universally is seen as a guy who always respected the code.

And that brings me back to the hypothetical, and if it were Crosby who was nailed by a Boychuk while in a vulnerable position, then I believe that some of you guys would be saying exactly the opposite than you've been saying in this thread.

Clean or not, Boychuk can't hit him like that.
Boychuk should have answered the bell.
Lucic should be suspended for swinging his stick like that and breaking Sutter's ankle.
Marchand deserved 20 games for kneeing Neal.
Engelland wouldn't have gone after him if Boychuk had fought earlier.

Come on, lol, you absolutely know you guys would be saying all that.

[dimitrym91]

How is orpik supposed to respect eriksson there, let him go in on a 2 on 1? Maybe pass him the puck next time he has it and let him take a free shot on fleury? Big hits are part of the game, the least amount of respect in the game probably goes to Neal with Thornton not to far behind, but to say orpik has no respect is down right silly, orpik could have hit him in the head, left his feet, elbow, etc. but he didn't, it was a shoulder to chest/shoulder and that's about as respectful a hit as you can give, especially now when it seems like 3-4 games a night are being given suspensions

Not to mention orpik is arguably the pens second best d man, why should he be forced to fight Thornton? A guy who is going to play 10 minutes a night compared to orpik who plays 20+, sounds like a good trade off for the bruins there, in that situation I bet if it were say iginla or someone in his relative weight class and skill class orpik takes that fight but he isn't going to get into it with another teams enforcer

I'm not even sure what it is about these hypotheticals? So pens fans would be mad like bruins fans about the plays? I would hope so otherwise they are awful fans but I'm more interested in talking about events that actually took place as opposed to ones that didn't

[Gr8erade]

We've heard all this before. I can't really think any Boston defenseman who would make that hit and then run away when confronted about it. Sure, there are guys throughout the league who throw big hits and then run and hide and Orpik has that reputation. He's your guy, so the "why should he fight" works for you. I see something else though, and the Pens kind of play that way. That's a reason some people can't stand the penguins.

And yes, Orpik had other options on how to play that rather than bury Eriksson. To say that's the only way to play that is wrong. Orpik had the opportunity to smoke him and lined him up and took it. Pucks come around the boards 100 times a game, that check doesn't happen very often but it could happen more than it does. Why? Because many players opt to do something other than smoke the guy.

What's he supposed to do? Well, if you're struggling with coming up with other options than "hit a guy hard enough to put him out for 6 games and counting" then you aren't thinking very hard.

Oh, and by the way, since Orpik lined him up and hit him that way, he took himself out of the play by landing on top of Eriksson. Look where the puck went, straight out to the neutral zone. Could have easily caused his D partner to be the only one back. So much for playing good D. Orpik ended up 15 feet inside the Bruins zone and took himself out of play with that decision.

It was 15 seconds into the game, dude. Orpik and the Penguins came out looking to make a statement in their last meeting of the season with Boston that they weren't the wussies who got swept in last years playoffs. That's why Orpik opted for "smoke Eriksson"

[iceman8310]

Lets all move on.

[Gr8erade]

Lets all on.

Get along?

We are! We're having a healthy and civil conversation. Shouldn't be anything wrong with that.

If you meant something else then my reply is "huh"?

Lol

[iceman8310]

Get along?

We are! We're having a healthy and civil conversation. Shouldn't be anything wrong with that.

If you meant something else then my reply is "huh"?

Lol

I mean't to write let's all move on.  The hamster is still asleep

[Gr8erade]

I mean't to write let's all move on. The hamster is still asleep

Nah, as long as it's civil, I see nothing wrong with having a conversation.

[ShaunJ13]

Where do you guys get all this info? I want to know where I can find out what NHL players were thinking at the time they made split second decisions.

[dimitrym91]

I just want to clarify that orpik is in no way my guy lol I am not even remotely a pens fan or bruins fan, leafs and wings for me but I just see this one from the side of the pens, sure orpik is making a statement, and yes he took himself out of the play, but he also took out a potential attacking threat at the same time which is his job, if he lets eriksson go and he picks up the puck orpik may be out of the play and he may not be, it happened that eriksson missed the puck but orpik can't go into a play with the assumption he isn't going to get it

 

is there a potential bruins d man who wouldn't take the fight after the hit? I don't think so I like their style of play for the most part. since we like our hypotheticals, what if krug makes that hit on say ville leino of the sabres and john scott comes calling? Not to say krug is a wuss but he would be dumb NOT to skate away from scott at that point not only cause he is way overmatched size wise (I understand orpik wasn`t) but because hes a key part of the bruins d and being off the ice for 5 minutes is going to hurt his team, where for a guy like scott it isn`t as big a deal to the sabres to be in the box for 5 minutes, orpik also can`t put himself out for 5 minutes with martin out of the lineup either, he needs to make sure he is on the ice as he is one of the top 2 d with letang, and now look at their d, arguably their top 3 d men are out of the lineup, thats devastating to a team that has a goalie like MAF who isn`t exactly a brick wall these days

 

Sure there are other plays orpik could have made, he could have backed off and backpedaled, he could have come in from an angle and rode him into the boards, there is lots of things he could have done, but to be quite honest he has no obligation to let up when erikssons own guy puts him in a suicide pass situation, I`m just saying everyone is so worried about getting the head hits, hits from behind, etc out of the game and as soon as a guy makes a textbook check we start going crazy about that, for example you say it was a `bad` good hit so here is my example, dion phaneuf on stephane de costa, I`m sure we have all seen it a while back but my point is de costa comes into the zone with his head down and is vulnerable, should phaneuf be obligated to let up there? this is where it gets really interesting because this leads into a total other discussion about hitting in hockey in general and whether or not your for it and believe it has a place in the game (not any of you guys personally, I think we all are, I'm talking more in general)

 

 

I was going to use the kronwall on voracek hit as an example but I thought it was a little to similar and it would have ended up with us having the exact same discussion as we would have about this hit