Zach on the MSU-UM incident:
how many times you watch video? pat and i were watching it last night, the slash does not look hard, you can see it good in the last view, but it is a very very very dumb play. and has no room in hockey. the punch from behind or whatever it was is pretty awful, the dude lost his nugget and bashed the guy from behind. if that whack at the end hadn’t happened would this be a big deal? or just another roughing penalty?
Fair point and good questions.
I’ve watched it probably 15 times, I really wish there were better camera angles. Unfortunately hockey technology is stuck 20 years in the past (the authorities blew all their cash on the glow puck and now we’ve got Blades of Steel-level camera work.)
January 27, 2009 at 12:17 pm |
i remember fedorov used to blast that thing. the tial would be massive and distracting.
“Canadian news satire program This Hour Has 22 Minutes parodied the concept, promoting a glow that recognized when Americans would appear on screen.”
January 27, 2009 at 12:34 pm |
Just read the MGo Blog coverage. Wow those guys are heated, saying that the suspension of the players for the rest of the season doesn’t come close to being a sufficient punishment for the players or the MSU PROGRAM. I am inclined to agree that the players actions were severe enough that they could have recieved a far harsher penalty. If they had been permanently removed from NCAA hockey I would have probably been a little suprised, but I could have seen that as punishment. The play was despicable.
But there is no way that an unbiased person (I get that Mgoblog writers are Michigan fans, but they typically try to claim at least some objectivity) could argue that the MSU Hockey program should be held responsible for this. It was an on-ice incident that happened in the heat of a moment. It’s terrible but what are you going to do as a program to stop it? It’s not like this is somehow a systemic part of the MSU hockey program. They don’t exactly provide an example of what an appropriate punishment for the program would be but they sure don’t mind calling for something harsher.
I guess reading those posts just pissed me off because they are trying to frame this as an indictment of the MSU hockey program, and by extension of MSU. Which is asinine. Let’s not forget that the reason Kampfer was coming off injury was because he was severely beaten by a member of the UM football team. I didn’t check the archives but I would guess that mgoblog wasn’t calling for long term sanctions of the football team based on this isolated terrible act committed by one of its players. More likely they condemned the football player, said he should be kicked off the team and maybe paid lip service to improving discipline on the team. Which is fair. Coaches and administrators can only be accountable for so much, they can’t stop people from doing terrible, stupid things, they can only react to them.
So don’t paint this as something that reflects on the MSU hockey program as a whole unless you are prepared to use the same brush on your own school.
January 27, 2009 at 12:43 pm |
no diggity.
January 27, 2009 at 1:01 pm |
I agree with you, Kenny – certainly in principle that it’s not a reflection of the team as a whole – but also because I think this quote (from mlive) is pretty satisfactory:
“Michigan State coach Rick Comley told The State News, the Spartans’ student newspaper, that the actions of Conboy and Tropp were “cheap and uncalled for,” and he told Michigan coach Red Berenson after Saturday’s game that he would “deal with his players.”"
Unfortunately, this is just not the stuff on which great rivalries are built.
January 27, 2009 at 2:54 pm |
Yeah, Brian over at mgoblog is a little too riled up. Shit happens. The fact that state sucks this year and the players are getting suspended for the rest of a “lost” season, he feels is not a sufficient punishment. I disagree, you can’t vary your punishment depending on a teams record. If state was first in the CCHA then this would be a fair punishment but since they suck its not? That’s silly.
The one point he does have is that there IS now a much higher chance of some sort of retaliation incident next season. When Tropp and Conboy hit the ice to face the wolverines some michigan guy is going to be looking for blood. I don’t really know how to combat that, but its true.
Also, kenny, i don’t think its fair to compare off the ice/field incidents occuring on some sidewalk with an incident that happens during an athletic contests vs your main rival with less than a minute left in the your fifth loss in five games vs that team. A coach does need to have more control over what his players do on the field or on the ice. Why wasn’t comley upset with his players immediately following the incident? He sure didn’t look too mad. Why did he even have conboy on the ice? State was down two goals with a minute left and they put a guy on the ice known as their goon who doesn’t really ever score? Is there a point to that?
No matter whether you think its fair or not, this incident does reflect on the msu hockey program, and reflects badly. I think taking it to some university level is absurd, but it absolutely is an indication of what is going on in with the hockey team and yes, the coach has some responsibility for what happened.
January 27, 2009 at 3:10 pm |
well said.