Reaction following Shanahan ruling on Lucic

By Eric Wilbur

November 15, 2011

2 minutes to read

So, next week should be interesting, no?

Two days after visiting the Montreal Canadiens, the Boston Bruins will be in Buffalo to face the Sabres, a game in which you’d imagine fisticuffs would ensue if the Sabres hadn’t already proved themselves not to be able to take care of business. Milan Lucic’s toppling hit on an out-of-the-crease Ryan Miller Saturday night has been the most discussed non-suspension hit since…well, Zdeno Chara’s on the “Hall Pass” fan north of the border.

Here’s Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff prior to the ruling by Brendan Shanahan:

If he isn’t suspended, it just means teams will be able to do exactly what Lucic did,” Ruff said. “Their goaltender can play the puck, we can run him over. We can hurt him and all you get is a two-minute minor penalty. That’s essentially what that means.

“You can concuss the other team’s goaltender. You can run him going at whatever speed he was going. He made no attempt to get out of the way. It means it’s fair game on goaltenders.”

Oh. Neat.

Of course, they’re all up in arms in Montreal too, where Gazette writer Dave Stubbs wasn’t too pleased about Lucic’s appearance on yesterday’s “Felger and Mazz” show on 98.5 The Sports Hub.

Shanahan’s decision is debatable, to say the least. But what’s beyond any debate is the unfathomable stupidity of Lucic to go on Boston sports talk radio shortly before the decision was announced and joke about the violent hit.This was his taking the apparent “high road,” according to Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli, who in a statement praised Lucic for not responding to Miller’s profane comments about the Bruin in the emotional moments following Saturday’s game.

Miller’s remarks were aired, the goalie suggesting in them that Lucic outweighed him by 50 pounds. Lucic disagreed through a laugh, saying it’s more like 60 pounds. Hilarious…

Let’s make this old-time table hockey and be done with it. Shove a steel rod up the back of the obedient netminder?s pants and have someone from league operations sit behind the net and slide him from post to post.

And the Canucks, surely they have something to say about it, right?

“I’ve been trying to figure it out and I don’t know if goalies are in play now if they’re out of their crease. This might set a precedent.

“Shanahan played the game and he probably knew that [Lucic] had time to move, and growing up you learn you can’t really hit the goalies. I would have dove at the puck or have tried to get out of the way.

“I thought there would be repercussions.

“We’re concerned. I thought we were trying to get those kind of hits out of this league, and now it might be back to old-time hockey.

“The next thing you know, you might have a line brawl or a bench clearing.”

Meanwhile, Canucks assistant coach Rick Bowness thought differently.

“You come out of the net that far – all bets are off,” he said. “That’s the cold reality of our sport. It’s not a matter of protecting them – to me, the goalie comes out that far and makes a decision to play a puck, all bets are off and it’s up to the teams to sort that out.”