Guest Speaker: Max Pacioretty Hit

After Zdeno Chara's vicious hit that left Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty unconcious, I knew there'd be a lot to talk about. Luckily, a friend of mine, Cory Schneider, was in full on ranting mood, and was very happy to give his opinion on the matter. Below you'll find his thoughts on the hit (edited by me), and I'm sure you'll enjoy.

Also, expect a response post from me within the next day. My opinion of the play differs a bit from the one in this article, and I think it will be good to get multiple viewpoints on this increasingly important topic.

Let me just begin this article by sending my best wishes to Max Pacioretty.

Colin Campbell has the task of handing down a suspension now to one of the league’s biggest stars. I’m stating this as fact, because there is no doubt in my mind that what Chara did to Max Pacioretty was on purpose. I just hope the suspension isn’t lightened because Chara is the captain of a playoff team fighting for first place in a hockey market; execute him for all I care.

Journalists who say that Chara’s hit was just a rub out gone wrong have to look at this in context. Did the last two Montreal-Boston games not end in brawls? On January 8^th Pacioretty won the game in overtime and may have gotten a little carried away by giving Chara a shove on the way by. The latter lead to fights breaking out all over the ice, which eventually led to the battle royale that was the Canadiens-Bruins game on February 9^th.. This shove however, was no excuse for the dirty late neck bending hit Chara gave in return.

Those who still insist Chara was just throwing his weight around in the wrong place at the wrong time have to realize that he must be held responsible anyways. At six-feet nine inches tall and 255 pounds Chara is known as the NHL’s big man, and with great size comes great responsibility. He can’t be carelessly hitting whoever he pleases whenever.

This isn’t some amateur defenseman who has no idea what he’s doing either. We’re talking about a five time all star and Norris Trophy winner; trust me when I say he knows where he is, and what he’s doing when he’s on the ice.

Now we come to the point that angers me most. If Lemieux is hypocrite for having Cooke on his roster then I don’t know what that makes Chara. How can any Boston Bruin go out and take such a cheap shot when you train, travel, play and basically live with teammates Marc Savard and Patrice Bergeron. Both have been the victims of multiple head hits and have their careers put in jeopardy by repeated blows to the head. Then Chara goes out and does what he did to a budding star In Pacioretty, who is finally getting his career on track. If I was either Savard or Bergeron I wouldn’t be able to look Chara in the eye anymore.

It comes to me as no surprise that something like this happened during this game. This game was being marketed on local Boston sports channel NESN by showing a montage of the fights from the previous game. This is what’s wrong with the game as it stands now. I’m all for fighting, but some American fans take it too far; the sport doesn’t revolve around violence, violence is just part of the game.

I wish I could talk about how changing the rules will protect the players and stop these incidents from happening, but the truth is they won’t. More severe punishments after the fact won’t deter players from cheap shots like these in the midst of play. Player have no respect for each other, and it may take an incident even worse than this or countless other head shots to make players think twice. That is the unfortunate reality, until someone gets really hurt, or possible worse, hits like these will keep on coming. 

At least there were some positives; Lars Eller seems to be coming into his own, unfortunately his performance was overshadowed.  Also there was some respect shown when, despite his absence, Habs fans demonstrated their class by voting Pacioretty third star and gave him a minute long ovation. Also, credit must be given to the coaches for keeping the game in check after the incident, especially Claude Julien. Julien avoided further conflict by delegating agitator Shawn Thornton to the box to serve Chara’s five minute penatly.