Spezza's Injury is pretty severe...

by High Priest of Alfie on Dec 27, 2010 1:09 PM EST

Jason Spezza got hit in the numbers last night by Chris Letang during the senators 3-1 win over the Pitsburgh Crosby's - I mean - Penguins. A minor penalty was assessed on the play, with another minor handed out to Ryan Shannon who was bleeding from the head. I feel the league should be reviewing this hit, because it looked pretty bad. Ian Mendes has tweeted "Right shoulder injury that should keep him out long term", "The club believes Spezza will play again this season - but the guessing is after the all star break". Spezza believes that surgury will not be required, but a better picture will be painted in 5-7 days after the swelling goes down.

I still can't believe the officiating when the penguins are involved. I hate using the term "bias" when talking about a beautiful sport like Hockey, but it's pretty hard to discount when one reviews games that the penguins have played over the past few seasons. It's infuriating that someone can be badly badly injured, and not only is the penalty called the wrong one, but that an additional penatly is giving to someone bleeding from the head. It's attrocious.

Merry christmas to everyone on this site, and a happy new year as well.

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I don’t think that Letang’s hit was vicious at all. 2 minutes was deserved but not more. However Shannon took a shoulder to the beak from — who else — Matt Cooke, and his subsequent bump into Letang was in no-way roughing. At worst, it should have been boarding to Letang, hit to the head (or even interference) to Cooke, and “roughing” to Shannon. At best it could have been a 5-on-3 for the Sens.

by wprager on Dec 27, 2010 2:25 PM EST reply actions

Hits from behind are automatic 5 minutes. Those are the rules. It doens’t matter how “vicious” it was or what a player’s intent was. If you see someone’s numbers and you hit them, get the fuck out of the the game. There’s no other option, it’s a five and a ten and they’re off the ice until the next day.

by ojc on Dec 29, 2010 4:44 PM EST up reply actions

yeah initially i was very angry. especially after watching it 10 times

the hit was pretty dirty — it was a two hand push from behind for sure. buuuut it was also spezza’s fault. if you look closely at exactly what’s happening, they are racing for the puck, and spezza makes a quick cut in front of letang in order to take away the angle and reach the puck first. as he cuts in front, he lifts his right skate very quickly in an attempt to set it parallel to the board in order to exert force backwards against letang. essentially what he’s tryin to do is cut him off, then he’ll pretty much stop, stick his ass into letang and box him out from the puck. seeing this, letang puts his hands on his back to give him a shove to make him lose position, but spezza’s skate is not planted yet. he was not falling until letang made contact, but it was just body contact before the actual 2 hand push. he started the push when spezza was already starting to tumble, which was bad circumstances. spezza made a very risky move for a player of his size and strength and did totally rely on showing his back to prevent contact. unfortunate, but that’s what happens. he should have played letang more on the body in preparation to lean into him as he must have known the contact would come in some form. separated ac joint is what i’ve heard. hope he gets better quick! i have experienced many a shoulder injury, and it’s no picnic!

by Caden on Dec 27, 2010 6:48 PM EST reply actions

I disagree of your assessment of Letangs role in that play

I too have watched it many times and what I saw was Letang grabbing his pants and tugging backwards twice the second time followed with a hard push forward that put him off balance. If you watch his feet you see him lose balance on the second tug and fall awkwardly into the boards. Letang often gets away with a lot on the ice but this one was unforgivable.

by Hockey Playoff Run SensFan on Dec 31, 2010 12:56 AM EST up reply actions

at least

We’ll miss his faceoff prowess and….um….he passes the puck to Karlsson which is a bonus.

We’ll play better without him and our leading scorer will really take off.
I suspect he’ll miss 12 games and we’ll go 7-3-2.

Nice guy but Regin will do fine/more with the opportunity.

by MadCash on Dec 27, 2010 10:40 PM EST reply actions

Regan is Fast but

Both Regan and Michalek are fast but they have stuck Kovalev on that line and he will slow them up and cause them to play defense more. This team needs offense in the worst way and it’s simply not happening this year.

by Hockey Playoff Run SensFan on Dec 31, 2010 12:58 AM EST up reply actions