How is this different from Kostopoulos elbowing, or Komisarek eye gouging, Hunwick? All were headshots, all were “reckless” and/or “forceful”. I guess you can’t upset the precious Habs.

Revenge!!!!!!!!!!

I’ll keep saying it all day, Joe…the NHL and Colin Campbell screwed this up. They should have nipped this in the bud after Game 1, and not encouraged both sides to just keep escalating.

I will say this, though. Milan Lucic showed some really bad judgement in retaliating with the B’s having a clear upper hand in the series. Ignoring what the Canadiens were doing and just playing between the whistles was working perfectly for the Bruins.

They run the risk of uniting that Canadiens team a la 2002 with Kyle McLaren and Richard Zednik. It’s a different situation, obviously, but hockey is such an emotional game. You’ve go to worry this can spark the Habs going back to Montreal.

–Haggs

Haggs,
I agree with you. Bad judgment on the part of Looch, esp. being up by 4.
I just don’t understand. Should we be giving any edge to Montreal for game 3? And, is this just a 1 game suspension?

Also, why is it that all of the playoff series are being televised nationally, but ours? Curious.

yaeh milan should of controlled his actions but i dont blame him sometimes your emotions gets the best of you the league should of looked the other way montreal has been playing dirty and throwing cheap shots the past three games of course boston is going to look bad what about the cross check into patrice back after he scored barely missed the crossbar poor habs cry me a river

He’s a 20-year-old kid who’s been been turning the other cheek after being hacked, chopped and thumped after the whistle for two games, and who watched a teammate barely miss having his head handed to him. (Not to mention that he had his eye almost clawed out, and believe me, I saw it. I was there.) I’ll cut him some slack.

I don’t think this helps the Canadiens. It’s not going to give them free reign; if they keep up their “intimidation” tactics, they’re still going to end up in the PB. If anything, this keeps the Bruins from becoming complacent, which they have shown a tendency to do at times.

While it sux that Lucic is suspended to look at one bright spot, Claude gets to reunite The Krejci, Ryder and Wheeler line at a time when it looks like Wheeler could use a boost playing with some offensive players and Ryder busting out of his little slump. Bitz can pick up where Lucic left off on the physical end for one night.

if it was a canadien who did the same thing would the NHL suspend them?the Canadiens are a dirty team anyway, get out the broom the bruins are gonna crush thier will mon night

Somethings never change, is Lucic supposed to stand there and let 2 Habs go at him? The league officials and the commish are so erratic when it comes to calls. The commish went by the book regarding the rule here with Lucic regarding a match penalty which is understandable but according to the rules Wideman ( I think it was Wideman ) gets a high stick and gets cut above his eye, according to the rule book an “injury” designates a 4 minute penalty but I guess blood running down the side of his face isn’t enough and to top it off the refs ask him off the ice because he is bleeding? Complete nonsense!

I dont think that this will turn into a 2002 type incident because this team has too much veteran leadership to let that happen. While i dont condone what Looch did and think he let his emotions get the best of him, Haggs is absolutely right; Campbell and the NHL let this get out of hand a long time ago. There have been at least 4 incidents where Montreal players took blatant cheap shots at Bruins players and didnt even receive penalties for them. Does anyone else feel that this is the reason that the NHL cannot seem to get back off the ground as far as popularity? These biased decisions by the league office and the constant cheap play and diving is reminiscent of European Soccer and American fans are tired of it

Joe,

You can argue either way regarding Lucic’s actions but the underlying point is that you have someone like Cammeleri doing what he did with not a peep from Campbell and the previously mentioned crap by Montreal with no consequences which begs the question, where is the consistency??? Why dont you or your collegues who have access to question the powers that be force them to justify this??? Fans can write in to you all they want but most would rather see/hear Bettman/Campbell etc. be questioned hard on these types of decisions. Their positions are indefensible.

Okay, now I’m officially scared!

Peter,

If see or hear Bettman/Campbell questioned hard, then something like this happens: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X8J-fPvUDk

Campbell seems annoyed at having to actually do his job, and the explanation really doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Campbell loses all benefit of the doubt when the league did nothing against Cammalleri, and the NHL is really lacking in consistency and/or clear explanations as to why they’re ruling the way they are. You’ll never get straight answers from reasonable questions from me or my colleagues because the NHL isn’t acting reasonably.

None of this changes the fact that Lucic shouldn’t have retaliated…not the proper time and place, and that’s what the Bruins mantra has been for the last two weeks. The door is now slightly ajar for the Canadiens if they can find somebody that can actually stop the puck.

–Haggs

Looch needs to know with a 4 goal lead it would be wiser to just drop the gloves and lay the smack down on someone getting in his face.

The hab will just turtle any way after the first shot and you get kicked out of game with no suspension.

Drop the gloves and the STICK and every one will be a little safer!!

Mike Flynn