Shawn Thornton has been suspended 15 games

Lots of Hab's fans throwing in their 2 cents worth in the comments.

Dirty stupid thing to do against someone who couldn't fight back. Fucker deserves every bit of it. Coulda been a Bertuzzi Part 2 incident that happened with the way those two teams were cheap shotting each other in that game.

For those who may have missed it....

Don't really like the length but that's the reality in the league today. I was thinking 10 games max. Hopefully Shanahan stays consistent with this type of incident.

Habs fans comments arent worth reading.

hard hits are an acceptable part of the game...actual assault, where it is clear there was a premeditation to injure, should be dealt with by the courts. This is not part of the game

I sort of lean this way also, unfortunately. The reasoning being that NHL hockey has shown itself incapable or unwilling to regulate itself. The Neanderthal attitude still exists in the game today and two men beating the shyte out of each other is met with a 5 minute penalty, though I have to say the fighting with two willing fighters is not nearly as bad as these disgusting maulings. Still, in the NFL is there is constant hitting, pushing and battling, rugby might be the most physical of all games (with little to no armor), yet, you don't see people fighting. If they do they can expect to see serious consequences.

The game is a thing of beauty, enjoyable to play and the greatest spectator sport in the world. There is plenty of growth based on the speed and action for the future with so many markets still untapped and 3D TV technology not too far away. In an increasingly violent society many don't want to get thier kids involved in the sports let alone watch it on tv.

This year seems to be worse than most. Just as bad and maybe even worse than this was the mauling that Emery put on Holtby. It turned my stomach to watch, if it were a UFC fight the ref would have called it.

I must be missing something because if you look at the It's you call section at the end of the article in the link it's empty.

BTW The Hab's fan comments are probably just as irrelevant as the unimpressive 6 Stanley Cup's the Bruins have won.

No doubt an ugly incident but I'm having a hard time believing Orpik is as injured as they say he is. I don't think he landed that hard from the slough foot, the first punch was mostly absorbed by the visor and the second almost missed, glancing off the side of his helmet.

If it would have happened in Toronto, Horton would have been arrested for assault.

This suspension is more about Horton giving the league a bloody nose, (and he did) than the injury to Orpik.

To me the moron that tossed out the knee to the head which started it should have got worse than this guy. Way more intent to injure than Thornton.

True but I wonder how much things like Todd Bertuzzi's previous assault on Steve Moore had to play in Shanahan's decision to give this many games to Thornton?

The League seems to think that retaliation in any form is a much worse offense than things like cheap shots to the head or unprovoked acts of violence that would be considered common assault in any other venue than the rinks of the NHL.

I think the length of the suspension is fine - but I would have had it start the day AFTER Orpik returned to the lineup.

I have no problem with fighting and hitting, but that kind of thuggery has NO place in the game.

The player that gets injured (Moore, Orpik) being in a literal defenceless position when assaulted seems to be the influencing factor in why the league is now hammering the ones that attack them. And it should be too. If the guy isn't going to willingly get into a fight against the biggest goon the other team has then leave him alone already. Nail him with killer bodychecks instead all night if you want to send him a message. Don't know what kind of worthless fan is going to cheer on their own goon when he beats the crap out of someone who has no ability to fight at the same level. No different than watching some kid in Grade 3 getting beaten up by a high schooler, and anyone who cheers while it's happening is really kind of a piece of shit.

You're not familiar with Boston fans, are you

On a serious note, I'd like to see an until/or system in place for suspensions when it comes to intent to injure. The player is suspended for x number of games OR until the injured player is back in the line-up, whichever comes .

At least SOME of the fighters in the league show some class. Like Orr after the first fight this year he had with Parros when they both fell and Parros smacked his face off the ice.
The next time they fought, they both fell again only this time Orr made sure Parros didn't smack his head or face off the ice again, despite being on the bottom when they fell.

But Thornton's thuggery made me think of the Bertuzzi/Moore incident and from way back, the Probert/Gill incident. There are others but those three kind of stand out because of the shock factor.
That kind of shit has NOTHING to do with the sport of hockey. I hate to say it but incidents like those need to be followed up by police investigation and possible assault charges. Being a competitor in the middle of sporting match is no excuse for and should not be a safe haven for outright assault.

Like this one:



You can see Habs number 8 moving to grab and hold on to Janssen so he doesn't collapse face-first into the ice. Knocked him stupid with that uppercut but still had enough class to make sure that Janssen's career didn't end in one second by falling.

I don't know if I'm being two-faced about a lot of this stuff though. I'm fairly certain that I'd be cheering like crazy, no different than Canucks fans were when Bertuzzi did the number on Moore, for whatever goon had finally caught a dirty bastard like Ulf Samuelsson and ended his career. Ditto with these other cheap-shotting sons of bitches like Matt Cooke or Sean Avery. I can pretend I'm above it all but in reality if I learn to hate one of them enough I get fairly unconcerned with how they get disposed of finally.