Everybody that claims Chara’s hit is unintentional (including himself) is diminishing the aptitude and faculty needed to become an NHL player, or even better yet, an NHL all-star. Any player setting skate on a professional ice rink has been doing it for nearly as long as he has been walking. The game of hockey is known to be extremely fast and dynamic. However, the frame of reference, the ice rink and boards, in which every hockey players have been evolving in throughout THEIR ENTIRE LIVES has not (or very slightly). One single variable defines any athlete that reaches a certain calibre of play: spacial awareness / being conscious of your position and the placement of others at any given moment of a given context. Spacial awareness is often referred as an ability to read the game or to predict/anticipate any play, whether offensive or defensive.

For example, the importance for a professional snowboard athlete to master his spacial aptitudes is crucial because of the complexity and diversity in terrains. Going off a 70 feet jump and often so, having to land your trick blindly (without seeing the landing) only grants those with honed spacial awareness. Although one may not see the correlation between snowboarding and hockey, this defining aptitude is very present in both sports. If someone taking off on a 70 feet jump at a speed much exceeding any hockey player is constantly aware of his spacial position, how can Chara, an NHL all-star, not know that the boards we’re coming?!?! Why didn’t he hold his forecheck when he realized where he was?!?! To me, Chara’s answer served only to fulfill his conscience. Looking at the images over and over only clearly acknowledged that there was not a glimpse of hesitation on Chara’s part… He went his full-throttle and never wavered one slight hit!! Yet, he still claims that he wasn’t conscious of where he was, that he wasn’t aware of how close he was to the board. Clearly, in the spur of the moment, he didn’t take the time to think about the potential consequences. Nonetheless, for the above reasons, I believe that the intention, which triggered his impulsion towards Pacioretti, was premeditated.

what’s next????
Chara telling that he wasn’t even playing? or he was not at Bell center at all !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
B********t more than his frame

Not only was it premeditated, it was REHEARSED five days before by MILAN LUCIC on TYRELL.

Exact same hit, but Tyrell was luckier.

Look at the video: http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?hlg=20102011%2C2%2C957&event=BOS202

He didn’t know it was Pacioretty? The play happened three seconds after a face off. I play garage hockey, but the first thing I do at a face off is check who is on the ice for the other team. Is he saying that an experienced NHL defenceman doesn’t check? Why is he lying???

Hypocrite! Liar! What else? A Boston Bruin.

i just wish a bus hit this big bastard ….

P.S. Boston is a town of fag

yah, im sure they were rehearsing it matt, get a life.Most hab fans r a joke, they only uproar over crap when it happens to their team and could care less about any of the other players around the league and what happens to them. Chara hasnt ever done this before or been suspended and i seriously doubt that max p was the 1st person that ever did something to chara to piss him off especially when chara was with the sens playing against the leafs. I do think chara shouldve been suspended though so this whole thing wouldnt have been so blown out of proportion, nothing like this happened when savard was INTENTIONALLY elbowed in the face by cooke.

Look at these Habs fans… doing what they do best… crying. Go boo the anthem, tools.

Show me once where any player on the bruins took a run at a player after a goal… never mind a game winning goal for their team? I’ll wait…

Now that you found nothing, show me where the player was struck in the head by Chara? I’ll wait.

Ok then, you have nothing but your only talent historically… crying.

Max D, you have got to be joking right??? Under your analysis of spacial awareness, etc, I am lead to believe no player has ever been blind sided by a huge check in the game of hockey (sarcasm because we see 10 of them on the highlights every night)…. I cant speak for Chara’s intentions, with that being said, I wouldnt be surprised if this was an accident. I also wouldnt be surprised if it was intentional. It was a nasty hit, but it was only a nasty hit because of where they were on the ice, had that hit occured 5 feet closer to the blue line we are all joking about how he got tossed into the bench, nothing more.

As I said, I cant speak for his intentions, and I am disapointed that we have to have this discussion, but pretending that every player is aware of the location of the puck/boards/refs/team mates/opponents/bench stanchins/etc at ALL times is absolutely ludicrous.

For your information Trev, Chara already have been suspended few years ago when he was playing in Ottawa.

Then I don’t know if you can read French, but you can find here some interesting thoughts from a journalist from Ottawa:
http://blogues.cyberpresse.ca/stlaurent/2011/03/09/zdeno-lindividualiste/

“I remember very well my evening of 8 January.

I was home. Usually when I’m home, I rarely watch parts of Canadian television. That evening, for some reason, I was connected to RDS.

I saw Max Pacioretty mark his winning goal in overtime. I saw him push Zdeno Chara from the tips of gloves, a bit mushy, to remove him from his path.

At this point, I rose from my seat. I kept a moment of silence. I made a little prayer.

Poor guy, I told myself. He had to act without thinking. He had been a little gesture because he was happy. He was proud of having helped his team to snatch a point in the standings with its biggest rivals in the race for the championship of the Northeast Division.

It was already clear in my mind, that little gesture would eventually cost him dear. It was really fell on the wrong guy.

I was convinced that Chara would eventually take revenge.

I rubbed the giant defender on a daily basis for four years. I always thought he was one of the stars the most selfish and individualistic in the NHL.

In Ottawa, when he spent less than 26 minutes per game on the ice, he sulked.

When he felt that the best forwards of the opposing team had made him a sleepless night, even if the Senators had won, he was not happy.

You saw his reaction when he won the test of the most powerful slapshot on the sidelines of the last All-Star Game? A predictable reaction. He wears the crown in recent years. He did not want to assign.

Similarly, when the selfish Zdeno is stepping on toes, he does not forget easily. He who hustles expect eventually to being jostled in turn.

Chara has still not used to crossing the line. If he was a bastard player long ago that unfortunate incident allegedly occurred.

The guy knows his strength very well. He knows he is bigger, bigger and stronger than their opponents.”

lol, he was suspended for a fight instigating and the other stuff of how he would complain if he wasnt on the ice for a certain amount of time ive never ever herd that about him on any forum board.I also like how stupid these fans really are, they flooded 911 calls in montreal with this and it was hard for ppl with real 911 calls to get through.That push btw looked like a “haha we won” push, bruins got their revenge anyways on the nxt game beating them 8-6 and also beat them in pretty much every fight that nite.

Nobody knows what was going through Chara’s mind during the hit. We do know what was going through Pacioretty’s…the stancion!

Get off the crying jag. I agree with all the ESPN analysts who played NHL and even against Chara. No intent. He got a major. Sorry for the MTL player, but I see where he wishes for no criminal charges. It’s hockey, you clowns. The Bruins-Canadiens rivalry and hatred goes way back to the days of the original 6 teams and there is a lot of history, but many of these posts are stupid, hate-filled and full of childish temper tantrum-like crap. I have been watching NHL since my 1st visit to see Bs-Wings in Det. and I’m amazed at the pitiful, petty fans that root for the Canadiens. I’d love to get nasty about this but it’s beneath me….go watch a Montreal Expo game…oh, sorry, you are unable to. Go watch the Blue Jays!!!

To all you Habshaters – get a life!!! I’d like to see how you’d react if roles were reversed!!! “Shoving” as u put it and possibly ending a carreer are 2 totally different things!!! How the Boston Bullies played the last game basically proved they have no class!!! Oh and FYI Chara has been suspended in the past – check your facts before shooting off your mouths!! It happened because he instiigated a fight when he was with the Sens so no he is not an innocent player. Funny how other players from other teams got suspensions for hits on the Bruins but Bruins never got any for there major hits on others – I guess being on a team with Campbell’s son works in your favor. Besides the hit we beat the B’s by goals – even the last game we may have lost 8-6 but last time I checked that is only a 2 goal difference – they only beat us because they Injured our players not because they out played us – at least we stick by our team win or lose!!!

ur rite habsfan, that didnt happen to bergeron or savard rite, and any one saying the campbells son thing is so effin stupid since colin has no say when it comes to the bruins suspensions, another person does it b/c his son playsfor boston .Actually we did outplay u, we just got more penalties, most of the goals mtl got were on the pp while only 1 for boston.Alot of class in mtl for sure there aswell, theres a facebook page on killing chara with a reward and how many times has that stupid city started riots, what a joke down there.

Blah Blah Blah — Hey Trev maybe you should learn to read before responding to posts – 1st I never said “Colin” made the decision (I know he has no say and I know it was Murphy who made the decision (Colin’s little pet). 2nd if you would actually read and understand I never said it didn’t happen to Bergeron or Savard what I did say was that anytime a serious hit was made TO a Bruins player the player who did it got a suspension yet again if you actually go and get your facts straight you would see that the Bruins for some odd reason keep getting away with it. As for the Chara killing – I didn’t say it and I never said it was right. Also, please I know alot of Boston Fans who are are saying that Bruins just played bad on Tuesday, get over it, you lost and your player got off scott free. Oh and one more thing Trev – enough with the riots -first off they don’t just happen in Montreal and second if you paid attention (which you obviously didn’t) the riots were caused by little punks who were not Habs fans let alone Hockey fans and it was because of Habs fans that those little punks got caught. And implying someone is “effin stupid” for stating an opinion is real mature of you, again Boston = No Class (I guess it goes for the players and their fans – and please I am not generalizing it is just IMPLIED to specific people and they know who they are!!!) I guess we will just agree to disagree and the montreal-boston rivalry will live on!!!! See you in the Playoffs.

thats strange, i dont remember cooke getting suspended at all, he got off scott free himself and the hit on bergeron was about 2 games i believe. I think chara shoulda been suspended just to make every1 happy for about 2-5 or maybe even 10 games.

for a guy that makes his living being aware of his surroundings he seems to have lost all his ability all at once.
How convenient . This form a gut that can tell you who he diked and who passed the puck to him and where in the net the puck went from five years ago.
The NHL is spinning this one hard.
Bettman doesn’t care about the Air Canada grievances , in fact he said that if they pull out then the NHL will use another carrier.
I think Air Canada should pull out right in the middle of the playoffs.
Let Bettman find a new carrier then.
This whole incident and the total lack of concern for players well being has sparked outrage among hockey fans across North America and has casted a awful light on the game.
I blame Boston and there influence among the NHL teams and the supposed officials for backing off .
Bettman for sitting their spewing out complete garbage.

Ralph, what the hell r u talking about?where tdoes that 2nd sentence comes from where he can remember who passed to him and where 5 yrs ago.I dont c how u can blame an entire franchise for anything.How is boston influencing the officials plz post some facts about this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jimZ1tSdPY0

The new reality for Chara is one where players of opposing teams will not trust him on the ice or off, and will slowly reconsider his hit on Pacioretty, on account of the simple statement he made: “I had no idea he was on the ice. I had no idea it was him.”

That would normally send shivers up the spine of NHL players who unanimously agree Chara is the biggest and strongest player in the league. The notion that a player of Chara’s size, strength and talent plays the game with a confessed level of unconsciousness in what is arguably the fastest and potentially deadliest contact sport on the planet would (should) be frightening to everyone in the NHL.

It’s like a driver racing and overtaking someone to his left and not knowing if it’s someone on a bike or a driver in a fast car. As for the stanchion Chara was apparently also not aware of, that’s like racing and overtaking that someone to your left, guiding that someone through an intersection and into a car traveling in a perpendicular direction and then claiming that he didn’t see the red light. If he can’t see the red light it’s probably because he had his eyes on that someone to his left he was trying to overtake and slam into a car or a pole. If on the other hand he couldn’t tell who that someone to his left was, bike or car, it’s presumably because he had his eyes on the lights. If he didn’t see both the someone to his left and the lights up ahead, where was he looking and what’s he doing driving a car?

No NHL player will buy this of course, including Chara’s teammates, and it’s why he will eventually lose the players’ trust.

Two great players thus far have publicly stated they don’t buy Chara’s story or logic. Vancouver Canucks captain Henrik Sedin and San Jose Shark Joe Thornton.

“Sedin agreed with Thornton that all players know where stanchions are in rinks and understand the danger of hitting or getting hit in that area. Sedin and Thornton are Hart Trophy winners, two of the best players in the NHL.”

“I’ll tell you this: if you say that you don’t know where things are around the ice, I think you’re not telling the truth,” Sedin said. “You play the game for 20 years, you know it’s there.”

Some may say, wait, Thornton and Sedin are great players, and not all players have their talent or vision on the ice. True. But everyone, including those defending Chara, has also stated that Chara is one of the great players in the NHL, in the “best defenceman” category. Could one of the best defenceman in the league, some say the best, be that unaware, that unconscious on the ice?

And if that’s the case when he is skating, what about when he’s standing still, on the ice, when the play is dead, like just before a faceoff?

That raises the other disturbing bit of info Chara shares in the same breath of his contention that he had no idea it was Pacioretty:

“It was a faceoff and we tried to set up a play. The puck went to the other side and we were racing for the puck,” said Chara. “I had no idea he was on the ice. I had no idea it was him.”

How does a team set up a play from a faceoff in the offensive zone?

Hockey players and coaches and analysts the world over know that come faceoff time everyone on both teams takes careful account of who is on the ice and where, so that when the puck is dropped, depending where it goes, there will be an appropriate response from each attacking or defending player strictly based on having carefully studied everyone’s position on the ice before the puck was dropped.

Perhaps a different story if the play had been going for some time without a whistle, or players being at the end of their shift, light headed and tired.

But this was a play fresh off a faceoff. Ask anyone in the league and they’ll be able to tell you whose line and defensive duo was on for their side and the opposing side. In fact, during a faceoff in the offensive zone the attacking team takes careful stock of who, on the opposing team, may launch a counter attack. The stats and reports are there for everyone, and used by everyone, all the time.

Both Boston and Canadiens know that on the Montreal team Pacioretty has been THE offensive counter-attack threat the last few weeks. Even the Boston coach Claude Julien would have reminded his players to keep an eye on the speedy and crafty Pacioretty at all times, especially during a faceoff in the offensive zone, because he can burn you on the counter attack. And when you are about to take a faceoff in the offensive zone, you know if Pacioretty is on the ice or not. You keep an eye on him, as Chara did and as the tape shows. You don’t suddenly forget (five seconds later) that he was there, when he did launch the counter attack and you slammed him into the stanchion. Otherwise you can’t possibly be one of the best defeceman in the league.

The basic hockey logic and reality has not been explored or mentioned by analysts and certainly not by the NHL with the lists of questions it put to Chara when making its decision to suspend him or not.

And suddenly, it’s no longer the game we thought we knew and how it’s being studied and played by players and coaches (while it’s being played) and support staff in the rafters and private boxes constantly communicating to the bench.

No, suddenly, the mechanics and game of hockey, its logic, the careful eyes on the game by everyone including players on both teams, on THAT faceoff, went dead for about 5 seconds and came back to life AFTER the hit. That’s what we’re supposed to believe.

Suddenly it’s a game of instincts, total abandon, unconsciousness, and not strategy, it’s a fast game, as in too fast, players don’t know who they’re hitting, there’s no taking stock of who’s on the ice during faceoffs, and coaches don’t get stats on which opposing player is hot or cold, and don’t even know who is one the ice, and whether or not to place special attention on him, and matching lines is something that never existed, apparently, etc.

Watch the tape, from the faceoff. It was not a fast game at that time. Take note of the view the giant Chara has of the defending Montreal team at the time of the faceoff, and you will see he clearly has Pacioretty in his vision while in the offensive (montreal) zone way before he gets close to him at the blue line and travels with him in the neutral zone – for the interference and the hit.

Chara’s new reality in the NHL will be well deserved, unfortunately. Unfortunate as hell, for him, for hockey, for players, and for hockey fans.

Tony Nardi

Friday, March 11, 2011

But why? Why this hit, this time?

It’s what Bruce Arthur of the post asked in his Opinion, National Post · Friday, Mar. 11, 2011

http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/tipping+point/4420898/story.html

There is a reason why this hit is different.

As a chid, living in Montreal, and having arrived from Italy only a few years before, I watched Bobby Rousseau (my favourite player then) lying on the ice. I believe he had been hit by a puck in the head. He was there for a while. He wore a helmet after that, and then was traded. That stuck with me because the play seemed to have stopped forever. And then helmets slowly began to show up more and more. Mind you there was the death of the player at the hands of a double check by two Golden Seals players in 1968. That changed the culture, as well.

Over the years there were many incidents in hockey. The cheap shot hit by Chelios on Brian Propp 1989 was another one. Propp is down, outish, barely moving, and a balloon of blood under his head widened gradually on the ice surface.

There have been others. To my recollection what they all had in common was where they took place, awful and devastating as they were. They happened on the ice, within the ice surface, but more important, they happened within the boards… within the air space the boards define, even if many players have, over the years, made major contact with the boards and the “glass” partition and some were badly hurt as a result.

Then came Chara’s hit. A different world. A different class of hit. For the first time we saw a player’s head being guided by an opposing player outside the air space defined by the boards and then thrust, at the very last minute, into a vertical support pole that seemed capable of decapitating the player on the spot or the very least kill him on impact. It took me back to the 2010 winter olympics. Simple as that. No hit has ever come close. Even more serious hits with more devastating results were not as violent even when they were. What we have here is Chara taking Pacioretty into a non-man’s land area of the rink (air space) where the body, or at least the head and the rest of the body, could be separated on impact or at least give that impression. And then the noise. The actual hit. That, too was right back to the 2010 Winter Olympics nightmare.

I felt sick. And like Farber writing for sports illustrated, I thought he was dead.

The other thing to remember: two drivers traveling at 80 miles an hour, side by side, are not moving fast at all when looking at each other. They are actually still. Yet for those watching from the side of the road, the cars are going incredibly fast.

It’s the same with skaters. Pacioretty and Chara for a good couple of seconds were traveling fast together but still (motionless) together as well. Fast to spectators, but not to the players or even Carey Price, a goalie, whose eyes, in a sense, have to move as fast as the speeding skaters in order to be within the same aerodynamic speed and stillness. That’s why to the players on the ice, they could see what you and I couldn’t.

That’s why Carey Price stated, “It wasn’t fast, it was slow, actually. Chara took two or three strides and then hit him”. That tells you how the players see the play on the ice. It’s like when we, as spectators, are having a hard time following the puck and suddenly before you know it someone has already slapped it and the opposing goalie saved it. It is simply easier to see the driver traveling next to you when you’re going the same speed, than when looking at him fly by while standing at the side of the road.

The other thing I don’t get and has only been talked about on the French sports network…. there was an initial interference by Chara, with Pacioretty already having disposed of the puck. Then Chara remains in interference mode, stays with Pacioretti, then the extra strides are taken and then Chara’s left hand guides Pacioretty into the stanchion. The geography of this hit was actually very long. Two infractions by Chara occurred within seconds: Interference and then an illegal hit, both infractions while Pacioretty did not have possession of the puck.

As Pacioretty’s head clears no doubt we will hear more of what Chara may have whispered to Pacioretty or vice versa… and then we’ll know if Chara knew or didn’t which player he was guiding into the non-man’s land boardless airspace and stanchion.

Tony Nardi

I don’t think there is any doubt that NHL players were all affected by this. It was a funeral with the corpse still alive, but looked dead long enough to be dead and make people reflect on the math of how it happened. And the players have been doing a lot of math and physics in their mind. When all the emotions settle down, and people look at the incident, the sequence of events that led up to it, the past games, between Chara and Pacioretty, the fact that the league put their best referee on the ice in Montreal anticipating a problem, as well all did, and that, in fact, the worst did happen, and when people look not at the hit, but the start of it, at the faceoff, five seconds before it, they will see that this was not a dirty hit at all. Not dirty or even violent. The violence was in the outcome. The hit was worse than violent. It was clinical, surgical, thoughtful and executed to graceful perfection. It reeked of that one thing no one wants to utter: premeditation. That’s what makes it so disturbing to so many hockey players. And they won’t shake this one off easily.

this from last night’s game between Boston and Islanders says a lot

“Chara had addressed the Pacioretty incident before and after Thursday’s overtime loss to Buffalo, but he replied “we are done with that” when asked about it following Friday’s morning skate. Pacioretty, who since has been released from the hospital, suffered a concussion and a fractured vertebra when checked by the Boston captain into a stanchion at one of the bench openings Tuesday night.”

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/hockey/2011/03/11/2011-03-11_bruins_zdeno_chara_booed_heavily_at_nassau_coliseum_friday_after_violent_hit_tue.html#ixzz1GNCeaXaR

very nice postfifnd knowledgeable people on this topic, but you sound like you know what you’re talking about! Thanks