Trish Thornton's Sports Column Archives

Are we there yet? part 4

DALLAS VS. NEW JERSEY -- Ooops!

Well. So much for all of us smarty-pants who said this would be a boring, no-action, low-scoring series. 10 goals in one game? We didn't think there'd be 10 goals scored in 7 games! But the Arnott-Sykora-Elias line racked up points that would have made the Punch Line applaud! We know, it's early days yet, and Dallas is always explosive in games following a bad loss.

Before the final series started, CTVSportsnet.com's Steve Milton wrote:
"The Devils will have to give no quarter in their own end -- not that they usually do -- because they'll be hard-pressed to come up with enough scoring chances to chip away at Eddie Belfour's pedestal. Philly rookie Brian Boucher, who had a nice tailwind going for him but nothing like Belfour has, gave the Devils fits and the Stars are the best in the league at protecting the box, and blocking those long shots from the suburbs."

Hmmm. Welcome to New Jersey, Eddie. It's almost like the Stars' defence corps believed what they read in the papers -- that the Devils don't have a top-quality scoring line -- yet Eddie the "Spread 'em" Eagle had to be relieved by back-up goalie Manny Fernandez (doesn't he play 2nd base for the Brewers?) after the 6th goal. Who'd o' thought? As for the Dallas offence, Modano and Hull can win games by themselves, and they had better do it soon because if they rely on Guy Carbonneau, Jon Sim and Kirk Muller for offence, let's just give the Cup to Scott Stevens right now.

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Those who live by the hit, die by the hit
The Hit. If you don't know what that means then maybe you subscribed to the wrong newsletter.

For the rest of you, this has become a story of epic proportions. And by epic, we mean a story in the true classic tragedy genre. We have the hero, Eric Lindros with his perfect Greek god-like athletic build, the strength of Hercules, the ferocity of Ares, the youthful masculinity of Apollo. Then there's the hero's family, you know, the mum and dad who put the fun in dysfunctional? Enter the anti-hero, Bob (don't call me Bobby) Clarke, a man who at one time was the hero, a man who seems to use everything in his power to bring the Big E down. The hero rose out of the fog of concussion number 6 and the shame of losing the captaincy to score his team's only goal in a crucial game. But as we all know, the hero of a classic tragedy never comes to a good end. And 8 minutes into the last game of his team's season, our hero was knocked out because of that one fatal flaw: he had his head down in the New Jersey zone when Scott Stevens was on the ice.

Enough of the melodrama already!

There's one thing that never seems to be discussed when the pundits ponder The Hit, and that is: Eric Lindros gave as hard as he got, and though there have been no reports in the media, there's no doubt that the guy likely suffered from more than 6 concussions. Way more. Everytime he clocked an opponent, don't you think his brain shook a little too? Our hero plays in one of the toughest games on the planet -- even professional football has higher protective equipment standards than the NHL has -- and he raised the bar for landing brain-numbing hits on opponents.

But it may be over now. Lindros is going to have to make some tough decisions over the summer. Retire now? Take a year off and hope to make a deal with a team who wants a damaged free agent? Another hit may end more than his career. We hope Eric makes the right decision.

The Hit created a lot of chatter in the CTVSportsnet.com fan forums:

Lindros Fan says:
"I think the biggest thing that bothered me about the whole Lindros hit, was that Scott Stevens had the nerve to say that he felt bad about it and it really affected him. He has made this same hit numerous times and knows the outcome of it, but yet he still did it. How could he act so surprised at how it turned out, he was definitely trying to take Lindros out. If he just wanted to get the puck away from him he could have checked him and stayed away from his jaw/face area. I know they say that it is a 'clean' hit, but it was also an intentional hit to the jaw to get Lindros out of the game. Get better Eric, that's all that matters now!!"

Shel begs to differ:
"C'mon already. A hit is a hit. Don't start whining about poor Eric. I've seen him hit players just as hard as Scott Stevens. If he can't take the hits then he shouldn't be in hockey. Lindros shouldn't even have been playing -- then maybe he wouldn't have made that 'rookie' mistake by putting his head down. It was a clean hit."

... as does armenius:
"You've got to be joking, right? Teams like Philly that seek out the behemoths with the intent to intimidate other teams that have smaller, faster players are proof that the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Do you really think that he hit Lindros any harder than Domi? Domi gets up, Lindros does not. I would much rather see clean, solid hits like the ones that Stevens has been delivering (his job), than the cheap shot, sloughfoot, and stickwork that's out there now. Major penalites for hits? How do you know who has a glass jaw, who takes the dive, etc. etc. Why not simply start calling penalites for 'bodily contact' next. This is a man's game; go hard, or go home."