And absolutely no one who was there believes it was an intentional dangerous play. Twitter is a stupid disgusting place, Ice Hockey twitter moreso. They are point scoring/rage baiting for clicks.
NHL 2023/2024
- Thread starter WeePat
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Yeah Twitter is an absolute cess pit.
Really sad this is. Neck guards should be mandatory after this.
The EIHA have today said they are being strongly recommended from this weekends fixtures onwards and will be mandatory from 31/12/2023.
Generally as a governing board they are shit but this is a rare W from them. Some clubs who already have them on hand are making them mandatory from this weekend.
Come on.
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Marty McSorley was sentenced 18 months of probation after his assault conviction for swinging his stick on Donald Brashear's head. Seriously, this Johnson/Petgave incident will have to be met with actual prison time against Petgave since there was indeed no reason for a player to have a foot that high. I have watched lots of hockey for almost 35 years now and I have never seen something that reckless.
I finally saw the first part of the video after just reading about the story for the last few days. I previously didn't want to view the video because I had heard it was very disturbing. But, I found a copy where they show the play up until the blade makes contact with Johnson's throat and nothing after. From what I had read I assumed this was a case of where a player or possibly two had fallen to the ice and in the scrum a skate blade had made contact with the throat. This happened to a player in North America a few years back but his life was saved by some very rapid and expert medical intervention.
But, this was nothing like what I expected. For those who haven't seen it Johnson is skating up ice at speed and cuts towards the centre as he nears the blue line. Petgave is skating the other way across the blue line and while both are skating at speed lifts his leg and kicks out at Johnson in what can best be described as a kind of kick-boxing move. I've played and watched hockey for more than 5 decades and this was no kind of hockey play. It was absolutely a deliberate attempt to injure. It's tough to know if he targeted the throat or was aiming for the body and missed. But, he certainly kicked him deliberately.
For those who have never played or watched hockey, players on skates move much faster than even the fastest runners and the skate edges are kept very sharp so that they will cut into the ice. So when a skate blade strikes with the speed of two hockey players moving rapidly in opposite directions it is going to do damage. Think Samurai sword kind of damage (although the metaphor isn't exact because a skate blade has a small flat section between the two sharpened edges).
Adam Johnson deserves justice and Petgave should be criminally charged with something though I'm not certain of what exactly. Perhaps manslaughter or if they don't think they can get a conviction on that then at least aggravated assault or whatever is the UK equivalent.
Those saying this was an accident likely don't know hockey or haven't seen the play.
To me it’s the same as a pitcher throwing high & inside to change a batter’s eye levellets a fastball get away from them, hitting the batter in the head & ultimately killing him (I know the batting helmet would probably save him, but this was the tragic time it did not). Should the pitcher be held culpable for that mistake? Petgave tried to check Johnson’s teammate, missed, & his leg went into an unfortunate position to kill Johnson.
McSorley had time to mentally choose his course of action & commit the assault.
This is a link to an article from the Toronto Sun on the story.
https://torontosun.com/news/local-n...ed-accidental-until-british-cops-finish-probe
The article mentions the other two incidents where this has happened in the NHL (Clint Malarchuk - 89 and Zednik -08) but in both those cases the players were down on the ice and it was clearly an accident. To my knowledge there has never been an incident like this one before.
Don't think there has been either.
Outside the fact i believe this was the unintentional coming together of bodies in motion that ended up in tragedy, I'm also of the opinion that there are far more effective methods by which a player can seek retribution on another player (if retribution played any part in this tragedy, then my mindset could very well change, we just can't glean such from the short clip we are seeing). To perform a quasi-kung fu maneuver to put the recipient on the bench with at least a moderate injury just doesn't hold water for me. There was no intent there. Tough also to legislate recklessness in a sporting endeavor which champions those professionals playing on the razors edge of completely being out of control.
Just a horrible play all around.
Admittedly I have no idea about what his intentions were. As an ex-NHLer playing in England Johnson was probably one of, if not the best player on his team, so maybe it was just a chance to take a cheap shot at the other teams best player. Maybe he knew he was beaten and he was trying to slow down Johnson's progress to the front of the net. Either way I doubt he was trying to kill him.
But what is clear is that he deliberately put his foot there. It was not an accident resulting from a loss of balance.
And to your comparison to a high inside pitch in baseball. An inside pitch is a baseball play. The hitter knows it's possible and has trained on how to deal with it. This was not a hockey play. Hockey players do not lift their skates high off the ice or use them to kick. In fact they are taught to keep both skates on the ice and stay strong on their skates at all times. Johnson would never have considered this play to be a possibility and would have no training or muscle memory on how to react to protect himself.
I am seeing an off balance player who missed putting a body on Johnson's teammate, causing an imbalance. Would one need to put their leg that high up to regain balance, probably shouldn't need to, but it happened here & a tragedy resulted.
We'll see how the inquiry shakes out.
So the 4000+ regular match goers who saw it in real time and the countless pros in this league including AJ's team mates all "don't know hockey"
Good to know.
Genuine question as I have no idea of the number and availability of arenas in England. What percentage of the match goers do you think have ever played hockey? Or even what percentage have ever skated?
I know about a dozen guys through work or from playing men's soccer (what it's called here) who grew up in England and emigrated to Canada and only two of them can skate at all and they are both at a very beginner level.
From what I have seen at my own team (Milton Keynes Lightning) there are about 2,000 people per week and when there is a free public skate after the games there will be around 150-200 who touch the Ice, some more capable than others.
There are probably more who can but who just don't participate or are too young to not skate in mixed groups that big.
In terms.of playing, MK has a fairly strong youth hockey program for boys and girls starting from U8's up to U18, then a good amount of Rec League/Beer League teams then two teams in the NIHL league system (Lightning and MK Thunder) so a fair amount of match goers will have played.
In areas where youth hockey is bigger still like Nottingham, Cardiff, Swindon, London, Hull, Scotland, Sheffield those percentages would probably be bigger still (especially Sheffield).
Fair enough. Maybe I'm just being a Canadian hockey snob and underestimating how much hockey has expanded in England. Even so, I can well imagine fans anywhere who saw it live would think it was an accident. It probably happened very quickly and the aftermath was undoubtedly very shocking and overwhelming. But, I don't see how anyone watching the video can conclude it wasn't a deliberate kick.
When I was growing up fighting was part of the entertainment in NHL hockey. The Philadelphia Flyers won two Stanley cups by literally beating their opponents into submission. In the WHA a star forward, Marc Tardif, was attacked on the ice and suffered brain damage as a result of his injuries. The NHL has done a pretty good job of getting that out of the professional game over the last few decades. But, there is still a violent culture at some of the lower levels of hockey culture. My nephew played high level University hockey in the US for four years. He entered the working world a few years ago but missed hockey so he joined a semi-pro league in Eastern Ontario. My brother, his father, watched one of the playoff games and said it was like the old days with two big goons fighting for sport in the middle of the ice. One of them clearly enjoyed the fight and pumped both fists in the air and shouted "woooh" as he left the ice with a big smile on his face.
My understanding is Petgave is from my city, Toronto, so would have learned to play in that culture. So, it wouldn't surprise me at all if he was just taking an opportunity to have a go at the opponents star player without giving much thought to the possible consequences for Johnson. I maintain the play was both deliberate and reckless and given the consequences were so severe for Johnson, Petgave should also suffer some sort of personal legal consequences.
3 wins over the Oilers in a month and 9-2-1 start. I genuinely don't know what to make of this.
Quinn Hughes is ridiculous.
Quinn Hughes is ridiculous.
What broke in Edmonton??
Nothing. They have generally been an average to bad team. They have had the same issues for years, below average defense, terrible goaltending and their team offense is kind of fake, it entirely relies on the individual abilities of the two best offensive players in the league. The same could be said about the Leafs, poorly built rosters that are saved by other-worldly individuals.
Connor Bedard is decent.
Leafs can’t keep outscoring shitty D and goaltending. Yet another year we have a team not built for the play offs.
The only difference between us and Edmonton is our star players have turned up.
The only difference between us and Edmonton is our star players have turned up.
The 'bigger' Canadian teams are such a disappointment.
Canucks have started well, but i dont think they can keep it up throughout the season.
Canucks have started well, but i dont think they can keep it up throughout the season.
Jay Woodcroft fired in Edmonton, but I don't see any sense out of it unless Ken Holland got the axe as well.
A man has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter in connection with the death of ice hockey player Adam Johnson, whose neck was cut during a match.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-67419951
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-67419951
Matt Petgrave arrested
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When I first read about it I just assumed he'd have fallen and maybe been accidentally stamped on or kicked while on the ground.
Looking at the video of it, it really is worthy of manslaughter. That prick meant to kick him in the chest/head.
Looking at the video of it, it really is worthy of manslaughter. That prick meant to kick him in the chest/head.
Yep, definitely thrusts a kick at him.
Looks like he's been charged with manslaughter.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/art...ith-death-of-adam-johnson-during-hockey-game/
I think it's right that he's charged with manslaughter and will be tried. I don't know the sport well enough to say whether there was intent to harm but a lot of people seem to think there was. There's enough doubt so it's in the public interest to establish his guilt or innocence in a trial.
First time I saw the video it didn't look right. Definitely look like he moved his foot up towards him.
Sad turn of events for all involved in any case.
Sad turn of events for all involved in any case.
Agree. I'm not sure if the charge should be manslaughter or something lessor. But, he should certainly face legal consequences of some kind.
If this goes to trial its going to be weird, because it comes down to the defense saying it was an off balance player throwing a leg up instinctively and the prosecution saying it wasn't natural and no-one would do that. You're then expecting 12 people who've likely never put on skates to decide. In some respects its similar to highly complex white collar crimes where you end up with a bench trial.
Thankfully common sense won out. it was the only correct outcome from this.
Predictably, every hockey player I know in this country is now shitting themselves.
Anyone know where I can listen to radio commentary of games the day after the game itself? I used to be able to listen to Leafs games on Spotify but seems to no longer be an option
Well, shit. Two heart breakers for the Wings on back to back nights means my Sweden trip ends 0-1-1
I hate all of our defenseman apart from Mo and Jake and Jim Reimer can crawl into a bin.
I hate all of our defenseman apart from Mo and Jake and Jim Reimer can crawl into a bin.
Nice to see how we came back at the death against the Bruins, tied it up via Stamkos with four seconds left in regulation, then won it deep into OT.
Beat the Hurricanes last night while scoring 8 goals on 14 shots.
Best percentage ever apparently.
Best percentage ever apparently.
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