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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Dirty hits getting way out of control

By: Tim Campbell

Posted: 11/9/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

We're now up to two mainstay defencemen gone from the Manitoba Moose lineup in 19 games.

Both because of dubious checks.

Both because they weren't expecting the unnecessary and illegal rough ride.

Veteran Lawrence Nycholat went down in Game 3 of the season, slammed into the boards from behind by Chicago's Brett Sterling. He's still not back in the lineup, recovering from shoulder and knee problems.

Saturday, Mike Funk was the victim of an over-the-top run from Texas forward Luke Gazdic in Manitoba's 3-1 loss.

The check, along the right-wing boards near the faceoff circle, saw Funk readying to move the puck out of his zone. He made the play and took the hit, a rising blow that contained elbow, forearm and at the end, stick, and also included the new, popular move among the heavy checkers, the subtle kick with the legs.

Referee Shaun Davis could have called many infractions. Instead, he chose the green light for Gazdic.

Funk, meanwhile, terminated his shift. A couple of minutes later, no gloves and no stick in hand, he skated from the Moose bench across the ice and off, with a foggy look on his face and barely able to keep himself on his skates.

He was taken to hospital, given that he'd had two concussions that took up almost all of his season last year.

Funk did travel home with the team Sunday -- a minor bit of good news in the midst of this five-game losing streak -- but the Moose gave no update on his condition, saying only after Saturday's game that it was expected the big defenceman would miss some time. It will be a minor miracle if he's in the lineup for the team's next game, Friday at home against Toronto.

That someone was hurt during Manitoba's three-game swing through Texas on the weekend seemed inevitable. Between Davis and referee Mark Lemelin in the first two games, it was a trio of nights in which players got off nearly scott-free for drilling their opponents on the numbers.

Davis did penalize Texas forward Francis Wathier later in Saturday's game for doing exactly this to Moose defenceman Travis Ramsey.

Fortunately, a staggered Ramsey did return.

Telling about the state of affairs on the ice these days was Wathier's reaction after the whistle. He paid no attention to the player he fouled, rather grousing about the two-minute penalty he received, every step of the way to the penalty box.

So the debate rages on about blows to the head and respect among players.

It is most-heard in the NHL, but is most probably a bigger problem in the AHL, where one referee cannot see everything and young, brash players are willing to do just about anything to make the big time.

Funk's defence partner Nolan Baumgartner said after Saturday's game he's no more afraid than he was last week.

But Baumgartner, who knows the risks he takes, was sombre.

"I didn't see the hit but players talk about having respect for other players all the time, either hitting from behind or elbows to the head," he began. "The guy that hit him was that tough guy. Did he elbow him? I can't say. But you have to have respect out there. Guys can skate so fast, move so quickly in today's game, you've got to have respect.

"I know things can happen quickly. That one, he had a lot of time to think about hitting him."

Above, we didn't mention intent. Only the players know that for sure.

"Look, it's sometimes by accident, but you have to have respect," Baumgartner conceded. "Sometimes a guy will turn on you, but you still have to try to let up then. But then there's a big debate about it in the NHL these days.

"You can ruin somebody's career. You wouldn't want that done to you."

There may be some who thought Gazdic was within the rules in hitting Funk.

Our suggestion is that Gazdic and a few others like Mike Richards, Willie Mitchell, Jarome Iginla and Niklas Kronwall, a good many referees and some NHL GMs who ridicule the suggestion that this is part of the game (hello, Brian Burke), should spend a week volunteering a concussion clinic.

Standing idly by on this subject is folly.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 9, 2009 C5

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