Downie's sucker punch on Blake under investigation / UPDATE: No suspension
Steve Downie apparently isn't going to have a long stay in the NHL at this rate. In only his 4th game back since serving a lengthy suspension for his illegal hit on Dean McAmmond, Downie sucker-punched Toronto's Jason Blake while Blake was tied up by the refs during Saturday night's game. If you have not seen the footage of it yet, check it out here.
Hey, I love violence in hockey, make no mistake. But this kind of thing just isn't right. Blake's arms were clearly tied up by the referee and any potential fight was not going to happen. So Downie had no right to sucker punch Blake when he was that vulnerable. Today the NHL deemed no suspension is warrated, but you can bet that this guy is going to be monitored quite closely.
But hey, it's another black eye for hockey isn't it? Not really. It's a literal black eye for Blake and an on-going stain on the career of a player in Downie, who has the mental capacity of a headless chicken and the personality of a shit sandwich.
DownieTube
-Downie fights his teammate Akim Aliu during practice in the OHL.
- Downie loses his cool
- Downie compilation of dirt, sweet hands, and fisticuffs.If he kept his game clean, he'd be a hell of a player who'll enjoy a good NHL career.
T Tags: Steve+Downie+sucker+punch+Jason+Blake highlights Akim+Aliu+fights++teammate+Steve+Downie
8 Comments:
Yeah, Downie just proves his idiocy yet again. He'd be a good player if he had an organization that could keep him under control (see his play at the World Juniors), but the Flyers' whole organizational culture is devoted to finding and encouraging out-of-control players (working on a post on this for my blog). By the way, this one didn't even deserve a suspension, according to Colin Campbell . The interesting thing is that Flyers' GM Paul Holmgren, a former Broad Street Bully who led the team in career penalty minutes until the 1990s, didn't even defend Downie's actions this time. If even Holmgren thinks it's bad, how can Campbell not suspend Downie?
One thing, sucker punching around or under a ref isn't a new development. It happens a lot and no one has been suspended before. So Campbell has to be consistent.
I think the issue needs to be adressed at least and extra penalization needs to occur. I just don't think the foundation for that is there yet.
Sooner or later Downie is gonna have the bejeezus beaten out of him by someone much bigger and tougher who had has enough of his crap. I cannot wait to watch that on YouTube!
Hopefully, anyway. Some pesky turds have yet to receive quality come-uppance, like Ruutu and Avery, to name a couple.
I'd like to see Downie try that on Gaborik. Then we'd see Boogaard use his one brain cell to pound on the jackass.
It's too bad, because I think he won a gold medal with Canada a few years back at the World Juniors. He's got one year left on his contract after this season. I wonder if there will be any takers. He'll probably end up spending the rest of his career playing mostly in the minors. Right now he isn't a benefit to his team at all.
The one thing that separates hocley from all other sports is class. Downie's first hit on McCammond is excusable, he was going pretty fast. But this is malicious. Neither him nor Chris Simon should be allowed to play again. We let it go with all the sloop-footing in the 90s, but we need to draw the line.
Just saw this in Mark Spector's column in the National Post:
After making two good linesmen look bad when he suckered Blake, Downie will not get any favours from the officials for the remainder of this season. "We're just like you," one referee said Monday. "We know the assholes out there, and if one of them gets the crap kicked out of him - a guy who really has it coming - that's fine by us."
Awesome!
You know, back in the day, players had to prove themselves when entering the NHL. If you wanted to be a hitter, be ready to fight for your first season, at least.
Nowadays it seems like people want to suspend anything that moves, and whine when suspensions aren't readily handed out. I blame this on media bloat. Too many so called experts (e.g. John Garrett) trying to make their mark by starting mock controversies, acting like old women at a swap meet, shut up already. Let's keep the violence in a violent sport. Or should I be suspended for saying that?
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