Lucic Gets Two Games For Punch To The Face

Look, the sun will rise and set, the tides will ebb and flow, and Milan Lucic will punch somebody in the face. That’s just how it is. The NHL must have his discipline process down pat by now as they rendered a pretty quick decision and suspended The Serbian Nightmare for two games for popping Blue Jacket Kole Sherwood in the mug Saturday night in Columbus. He’s already been rung up for this before so another sussy wasn’t a big surprise. And as guy who has been watching the league for 40+ years, I don’t have any issue with what either guy did. Sherwood was trying to poke home a bobbled save. And Lucic was sending a message that his goalies aren’t to be fucked with, as well as likely delivering a little payback for an earlier hit in the game by Sherwood. One thing I was surprised with was Twitter turning into Helen Lovejoy after the punch. All due respect I didn’t realize how many pussies watch the NHL. (Also gotta love the guys who wish for a guy’s career to end. And Leafs fans who wanted to trade for him immediately.) It’s the NHL. People get punched in the face sometimes, particularly after legally jabbing at the puck in front of a goalie. Sherwood took a gloved punch to the face after doing such a thing and you’d have thought Looch re-enacted a hockey version of THE LAST BOY SCOUT even though on-ice refs deemed his infraction worthy of four minutes—-a double minor for roughing. It’s a game of intimidation and no more so than at the NHL level, where guys are playing for their livelihoods every day. Every edge counts. Sometimes the line will be crossed given what’s at stake. That’s always been the case and always will be. When that happens, that’s what DOPS is for. And this incident was pretty damn minor in the grand scheme. Lucic got punished, Sherwood is fine, and we can all move on. As for Sherwood’s reaction to getting a face full of high-velocity glove...

“That’s expected. That’s going to happen. Things are heated. I was bringing energy early, so I was expecting something early on.” “I saw the puck. (Rittich) didn’t have it covered. Until the whistle blows, I’m going for it. He didn’t like it, obviously.”

Huh, look at that. “That’s expected”. “I was expecting something early on”. It’s almost like he knows it’s part of the NHL game or something. Curiously, NHL.com still lists his penalty as “slashing against Milan Lucic”, which is exactly why I joked about it in my blog this AM. But...as the video above shows, the NHL is now claiming that Sherwood was being penalized for slashing goalie David Rittich. Hmm. I’ve been told that refs don’t include that extra info when they relay the penalty call to the scorekeeper. I don’t know who for the NHL adds that info to the site. But the NHL directly contradicted its own previous info in the suspension video. Not to mention, any slashing call on Sherwood there is a joke anyways.