I Don't Mind Seeing Pittsburgh Penguins Players Injured, Maybe it Should Happen More Often

I don’t like what Shawn Thornton did Saturday night. But I don’t mind who he did it to, and what team he did it against.

What Thornton did was inexcusable and indefensible. He should and will get suspended a long time for it. The reason it was inexcusable was because Brooks Orpik was defenseless.

However, hitting defenseless players is a consistent pattern of Pittsburgh Penguins hockey. Great offense, shaky goaltending, dirty hits. That’s the Penguins' way. And that’s why I feel no sympathy when I see a Penguins player lying on the ice. Why should I? That’s the sword they live by, and it should be the sword they (metaphorically) die by.

Maybe if enough Penguins get concussed, they’ll reevaluate how they play the game. Maybe if Sidney Crosby gets laid out the same way Marc Savard was by Matt Cooke, and has his career shortened, then the Penguins might look in the mirror and realize that hockey shouldn’t be played the way they play it.

Thornton’s attack on Orpik came after a double dose of Pittsburgh dirtiness. Sidney Crosby kept the blade of his stick on the ice to ensure he tripped up Brad Marchand. The ref, of course, didn’t call it. No big deal. That is until James Neal saw a prone player. Neal’s eyes must have lit up when he saw an opportunity to hit someone when they couldn’t defend themselves.

You can see Neal change directions toward Marchand, and keep his left knee exactly at the same height as Marchand’s skull.

To paraphrase Chris Rock: I’m not saying Shawn Thornton should have retaliated the way he did. But I understand.

Earlier in the game Orpik leveled Loui Eriksson. I think that hit was relatively clean. If anything, a 2 minute minor for interference as Eriksson didn’t have the puck.

What pisses me off about Orpik and the hit on Eriksson is that Orpik has made a career of dispensing hits like that, and then never EVER standing up for himself and for his actions when someone wants to fight him over it. He doesn’t answer the bell. Just drop the gloves, protect yourself, fall to the ice and wait for the linesmen to break it up. That’s all he has to do. But he doesn't. He hasn't fought in 5 seasons.

Orpik, like most of the Penguins, is only brave when his opponent can’t see him. Or when his opponent is horizontal on the ice, like Marchand. Or when he can use his stick as a weapon.

Chris Kelly is now out 4-6 weeks with a fractured fibula. Pascal Dupuis was not penalized for the blatant and completely unnecessary slash. The League has decided not to discipline Dupuis.

If players felt compelled to answer the bell after hits like Orpik’s hit on Eriksson, perhaps guys hesitant to fight, such as Orpik, wouldn’t be giving out so many concussions with legal seek-and-destroy hits. If Orpik knew he would have to defend himself in a fight later, Loui Erksson might not have gotten a concussion.

By the way, where's the sympathy for Eriksson? Second concussion in five weeks.

The NHL suspended James Neal 5 games for kneeing Marchand in the head. I doubt if that will alter Neal's behavior. He’s been warned, fined, and suspended before. And he still plays the way he plays. And he still fails to express any remorse or regret for it. Just as he failed to show remorse for kneeing Marchand:

"I haven't, like, seen the replay or anything, so I mean I hit him in the head with my leg or my foot or my knee or shin area. I don't know. But I mean, he's already going down, and I guess I need to try to avoid him, but I have to look at it again...

"I mean, what do you want me to say? That I was trying to hit him? No, I'm going by him. I don't get out of the way, like I said. I need to be more careful and I guess get my knee out of the way, but I'm not trying to hit him in the head or injure him or anything like that."

Contrast that with Shawn Thornton.

Which player do you think is more likely to repeat what they did?

At least the NHL has given out some sort of punishment to a Penguins player. When Matt Cooke wasn’t suspended for the Savard hit, the NHL failed to curb a dirty player and a dirty team. Instead they gave him and the Penguins license to do as they pleased.

The Penguins will continue to play the Penguins Way that the NHL sanctioned when they didn’t suspend Cooke. At least until something changes. Until they lose more players to suspensions. Or until they lose more players to concussions.

Thornton seemed sorry that Orpik got hurt. I’m not sorry. I don't care. I guess Thornton has more character and class than I do. But I’m just sick of players like Orpik, like Crosby, like Neal, like Dupuis. And until that team changes the way it plays, I won’t shed a tear for their troubles or injuries.

Hunter S. Thompson Would Have Enjoyed the 2012 NFL Season

I miss Hunter S. Thompson. I miss his writing. He decided to shoot himself in 2005, at the age of 67, in his fortified compound in Colorado. And I respect that decision. But I think he missed one of the more engaging, ugly, and intriguing NFL seasons in recent memory.

What would Hunter have to say about replacement officials? A devoted gambler, the tremendous influence that these amateur flag-throwers had on games might have driven him insane. Or thrilled him, adding even more randomness and chaos to an already difficult to predict maelstrom of variables.

Thompson lived in San Francisco for a period, and was once addicted to betting on the 49ers. He probably would have enjoyed the rise of Colin Kaepernick to prominence. An exciting, playmaking, tattooed star taking over as frontman of an already successful band that hadn't quite broken through to super-stardom. Kaepernick took over from a competent, but predictable lead singer. Alex Smith was the guy that sounds okay in a small club. Kaepernick is a rock star that can command an entire stadium.

The rampant PED usage by NFL players probably wouldn't have bothered Hunter. He used plenty of substances himself. One of his more famous quotes is: "I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs, or insanity for everyone, but they've always worked for me." If LSD and ether helped Hunter write (or at least influenced the experiences he had that he would eventually write about), I don't think he would mind players who use adderall or deer antler to play football. Football is already an unnatural act, and football players are already freaks of nature. Why not use chemicals to augment that freakishness?

He might mind the concussions. Back in the early 2000s he bemoaned the number of QB injuries there were in the NFL. It was an epidemic. And now QB injuries are fewer, but repeated skull bashing has created a generation of NFL players whose brain tissues have been reduced to ground hamburger. I think he'd have a problem with that. From his writings, such as a piece he wrote after Dale Earnhardt died, he seemed to have an ethical line that sports should not cross. Violence was fine, so long as there was no blood, no permanent injury. And once that line was crossed, sport became disgusting. Stadiums became Roman Colosseums, fans became voyeuristic sadists, and games became crimes.

Then there's the New York Jets: an endless source of writing material. They'd be pitiable if they didn't try so hard to be unlikable. I think Thompson would thoroughly enjoy the dysfunction of the Jets. Everything from butt fumbles to Tim Tebow to Rex Ryan's tattoos to snacks. The Jets are almost too cartoonish to write about, actually. It's like doing a thesis paper on the shortcomings of Wile E. Coyote's bird-catching tactics, it's too easy to point out the mistakes.

And finally there's the rise of the rookie QB. I think Thompson would have welcomed this fresh blood infused into the League. A League which has become somewhat repetitive  On Sunday the Super Bowl will have no Tom Brady, no Peyton Manning, and no Ben Roethlisberger for the first time since 2002. Think about that. A decade of football with 1 of 3 QBs always making an appearance in the Big Game. That's tedious. New faces are needed on the game's biggest stage.

RG3 might be Thompson's favorite. He would have reveled in the absurdity of the accusations that Griffin isn't Black enough. He would have loved to see football thrive in the Capital. He would have loved to see Daniel Snyder finally learn that you can't buy success, you have to cultivate, and harvest it from the Draft.

The 2012 NFL season would have offered Hunter S. Thompson a feast of intrigue and barbarity. The greed, the stupidity, the rises, the falls, the inspirational, and the abhorrent.

I'm not sure if there's a Heaven. But if there is, I think Hunter S. Thompson will be up there on Sunday, watching the game, making prop bets with Louis Pasteur, mocking the halftime show with Leo Tolstoy, and going shot for shot with Teddy Roosevelt.

Mahalo, Hunter. You're immortal.

BRUINS SHUT DOWN SAVARD

I keep thinking back to the Matt Cooke hit on Savard. It might have ended Savard's career, and Cooke went wholly unpunished for it. Not that a 4 game suspension would bring Savard back, or have much long-term impact on how Cooke plays the game. But at least there'd be a fraction of a feeling that justice had been served.

The Bruins needed to shut down Savard for the season. Concussions, especially when they come on top of each other, are unlike any other injury. There's no timetable. There's no way to look at an MRI and say "it's 100% better." The B's needed to move on to life without Savard, at least for the season.

And this is probably good for Savard, as well. Again, it's different from other injuries. Hard work can make for a speedy recovery when a leg muscle needs rehabilitation. The rules aren't the same for concussions.

But to all the life-coaches out there who have publicly advised Savard to retire, please shut up. All the people who say he needs to do what's best for his family, for his health, need to remember where we live. This is America. We get to make our own decisions for ourselves. These amateur life-coaches are also doctors, and seem convinced that Savard's brain will explode if he's ever again checked into the boards.

I love how good people are at making decisions for other people.

Anyway, without Savard, the Bruins aren't in bad shape. They do have 4 centers, although Julien doesn't like to give two (Seguin and Campbell) of them more than 10 minutes of ice time each. Which leaves 40 minutes for the other centers to divy up.

Effectively, the Bruins have been without Savard for most of the season. Though now they can allow temporary fixes to become permanent. And maybe they can acquire some outside assistance to help fill the void left behind.

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