Viewpoint

I think that most of the league of players were rooting for Simon against Hollweg in that game. Tiny punks like Hollweg and Avery are problems, especially when their tactics are not called. They make borderline hits against their league mates and do not get called for them.

I think it telling that most of the Flames spoke out for Simon after the incident last season.

Anyone who knows Simon at all knows that he's a good human being, although he has a temper. Anyone who really looked at the incident last season would realize that Simon got up from the ice, not in his right mind after a hit that gave him a concussion. He didn't hunt Hollweg down, he just saw Hollweg coming back at him.

All that said, I hope that everyone got this out of their systems in a meaningless game.

I think that most of the league of players were rooting for Simon against Hollweg in that game. Tiny punks like Hollweg and Avery are problems, especially when their tactics are not called. They make borderline hits against their league mates and do not get called for them.

I think it telling that most of the Flames spoke out for Simon after the incident last season.

Anyone who knows Simon at all knows that he's a good human being, although he has a temper. Anyone who really looked at the incident last season would realize that Simon got up from the ice, not in his right mind after a hit that gave him a concussion. He didn't hunt Hollweg down, he just saw Hollweg coming back at him.

All that said, I hope that everyone got this out of their systems in a meaningless game.

Bravo Barry!
A very well thought out statement - I feel the same as you about the goons and their antics. It is just too bad that the NHL feels that they need to appeal to the lowest common denominator to 'get ratings'- and more money -because it is ruining a wonderful game!
And to John Taylor, yes it is time for the courts to step in and enforce the law if the NHL will not!

Wow I am sick and tired of the no nothings whining about hockey. If you don't like the fighting, then don't watch it. How can you be a hockey fan and not understand the implications of not having fighting in the game. Please don't give me the watered down euro trash version of this great game. If you did not have fighting in hockey guys like Gretzky would never be as great as they were. All coaches would send there little skilled fourth line bangers out for the sole purpose to stick and nail these guys. And what would they get 2 minutes, the occasional major..whoopee to get the best player off the ice, that's a deal anyone would take. These superstars make 6-10 million a year do you want some 4th liner taking runs at them with no repercussions? Yeah I didn't think so. And I hate to tell you guys fighting is as low as it have ever been. back in the 70's, 80's and 90's when there was no instigator rule teams would police themselves. Do you realize that in 88-89 you had 12 teams with over 100 fighting majors in a year and over 1095 fights that year. You know what you had last year in hockey 650 with only 1 team having more than 61 fights for the year. Fighting has died down due to the rules and regulations that have been put in place. Now if you stick up for your teammate who has just been run you get an instigator penalty which means you get 2, 5, 10. and a possible game misconduct. Please go back to the old days and let these guys do what they have to do. Those who don't want to watch please don't your not true fans anyway.
Go watch football where they head hunt constantly and try to take guys heads off as often as possible yet I don't hear a peep about it.

Barry from Ontario, you make a comment about Gretzky and his great skill. Don't get me wrong, Gretzky is the best player to ever play, but he owes a lot of his success to guys like Dave Semenko and Marty McSorley who wouldn't let anybody come near Wayne. Why do you think Pittsburgh picked up Georges Laroque. Hint, it's not for his scoring prowess. These guy's have a place in the game. That's why the league should step aside and let the player's handle their own affairs on the ice.

I'm rapidly losing interest in my favourite sport of hockey because of the goons. If they did this stuff on the street, they would be arrested and convicted of assault. If these goons want to be "manly," let them go to Afghanistan or Iraq.

Give me the old days of the Edmonton Oilers with Gretsky - fast skating, great passing, demonstrating hockey skills. Hockey today has degenerated into Roller Derby on ice, the World Wrestling Federation on skates.

The NHL could stop the mayhem if they wanted but until the public and/or politicians demand a clean up, they'll allow goonism for ratings. When are the players going to wake up and see how they are being manipulated, even to the point of risking serious injury or death? I never thought I would see the day when watching golf was preferable to watching the NHL.

I continue to be disgusted by the "its all part of the game", "they're just letting off steam", "we pay them to deal with the inuries" arguments.

It may be the game used to be about destroying the evil enemies from across the pond (whether thats the local pond or the Atlantic), but today the game is about speed and skill. Times change, and so should the game. Don't get caught up in the "its tradition", otherwise it may well be your son getting his first well-earned concussion.

Back the replay up to when Hollweg
slammed Simon's head into the glass
& no penalty was being called. The referees
did nothing but if Simon
had let that slide, all the cheap shot
artists would have lined up to hit on him.
Everyone forgets that part & that's
where the trouble started. Hollweg
was trying to build a reputation for himself.
Trouble is, he just picked on the wrong guy.

It is pretty cut & dry . Suspension was
for regular season games . The League
should re-word the suspension definition
to include all games , reg season , playoff
or exhibition . Until they do it is what it is.
Simon just wants to take care of business
seeing as fighting is part of the game.
Hollweg should stand up and take his medicine.

What is there to say? Teams who allow these goons to be part of their teams are as much to blame. Coaches who put them on the ice know what can and will happen.

Isn't it time the players association becomes part of the solution? After all it's their own members who are out there being so badly hurt by other members. Tell me how this makes any sense to anyone. Get rid of the coward goons, no place for them in our game.

Hockey teams and players most often prefer to demonstrate courage (real and/or symbolic) rather than discretion. Good sense and sound reasoning are often brokered in the bargain.

It will be very interesting to see how the NHL responds to this. Will the leagues escallation of offences policy increase the the suspension for Simon?
Will the teams face fines for their decisions to dress both players given the circumstances?
If the NHL needed some media attention, I am not too sure this is the best way to get it.
Cheers

The final irony is about to unfold. Chris Simon is suspended for his actions in a league game. His suspension allows him to participate in a meaningless exhibition game. What happens to Steve Downie now? One could reasonably extrapolate the NHL's policy to indicate that Downie is suspended from future meaningleess games but his conduct won't exclude him from the meaningful ones.

Simon dear simon
I think it makes sense that he plays pre-season. However, i feel he really screwd up by not controlling his temper, is he an animal or does he have any restraint? I am a fan of his but after this i feel he should be suspended an extra 25 games. I like fighting and want to see it remain in the game, but his antics cross even my liberal line.

Here we go again.
Another hockey season with high expectations.
A great sport indeed.
Unfortunately, we're off to the races again with the same pattern of brutal systemic violence. (with the ensueing vendettas)
On the one side, the Don Cherry's with their "manly" take, or the NHL's concern for preserving the status quo to preserve revenue through ticket sales. (just watch the referees, and inconsistent rulings)
On the other side, there are millions of people who have turned away from the game in disgust. Would you let your children watch a such a fine example of humane sportsmanship?
No doubt the game can be fast, physical, and exciting.
Removing this dark side would not compromise on the quality.

PF

What difference does it make what the impact is south of the border?
I don't care whether or not Americans like Ice-Hockey. I like Hockey, Canadian style. Its a game where men stand up for themselves and their team-mates.
As the gentleman from NYC stated, its an inconsequential pre-season game.
Now that the retribution is taken care, the regular season will most likely be played with more emphasis on two points instead of 'getting back' at some cone-head who runs around head hunting.

I don't think it makes any sense for a suspended player to be playing during a suspension no matter what time of year. I really can't believe the league contradicted itself like that.
I feel they got it right with the Mark Bell suspension and thought the league was headed towards a more common-sense system, but obviously not.
As far as the fighting itself, I think it's part of the game and the "New York Brawl" should of happened, but in the regular season, like it always does. Don't think that that's over and done with, and so what if south of the boarder SAY they don't like fighting........ yes they do. They like fighting in hockey just as much as they like crashes in nascar.

The NHL's decisions regarding player suspensions over the past few years have been truly laughable. The Todd Bertuzzi and Steve Moore incident, the most embarrassing, brutal, and one of the most talked about plays hockey has ever seen could have been avoided if the league would have stepped in and suspended Moore for his very questionable hit on Vancouver captain, Marcus Naslund. Another such incident involved the return of Martin Havlat returning from suspension. His first game back was against the Philadelphia Flyers, the same Flyers that, several games earlier, the Senators had faced and Havlat had committed his violent act against Mark Recchi.
The game lived up to its expectation and set the record(at the time) for the most penalty minutes in a single game. The fact that the league has experience dealing with these sort of things doesn't seem to matter. If Martin Havlat had been suspended one extra game, then the whole incident would have been avoided. The NHL needs to take a hard look at their policy regarding suspensions and use some common sense in their decisions, so that the NHL's stakeholders don't have to be subjected to constant embarrassment over violent behaviour from the league's players.

You might ask what the NHL was thinking in allowing this to happen but it all comes down to the coaches that allowed this to happen. Either coach could have benched their player for the night but both chose not to. They took advantage of an oversight and watched how it played out. They are division rivals so naturally if they can put a couple of faces to the ongoing battle it makes for a great media coverage and adds fuel to the fires that will rage all season long. Next week the season starts and we'll have at least 8 more chances to watch these goons rip each other apart and listen as the media demonizes one or the other or both.

Better to get a little of this out of their systems now than wait til regular season. The Isles Rangers will meet after Simon is allowed to play again- would you have preferred this kind of thing to happen THEN?

What sort of punishment is it to not let a player participate in an inconsequential game? No, in order for the suspension to make sense, he has to be suspended from playing in regulation games. You can not ban a player from practicing and that is essentially the point of pre-season games. Not a particularly well thought our article, I must say.

What I don't understand is why Simon is allowed to play these pre-season games while the league has suspended Mark Bell?
Bell admitted his actions were wrong, and yet the league saw it fit to punish him further. Has Simon admitted any wrong doing? Arguably his actions in this game show exactly the opposite, the behavior has continued, and will probably get worse.

I would be in favour of lengthening his current suspension for his actions last night.

While I cant argue about the league allowing Simon to play in preseason games (does not make sense), I do think it was smart to play Simon against Hollweg in the preseason to allow the nonsense that happened last night to happen when the games did not matter. But it appears the Simon/Hollweg thing is far from over, as Hollweg twice started with Simon and then turtled away to allow others to fight his battles. That is the problem with Hollweg, he plays an agitator type role with borderline legal hits from behind, and then refuses to fight when the player that is hit challenges him. Mark my words, Hollweg will hurt someone far worse in his caareer then Simon ever has.

And I thought most of the bad decisions came from our politicians. What the hell was not only the league thinking but what was behind the respective coaches motives. And the NHL wants to be able to rule itself in these type of matters...well maybe it is time for the courts to step in.