The Pens announcers were falling all over themselves to defend Letang, but it was all for naught.  Anyone watching the replays could see that Letang had plenty of opportunity to let up and didn’t, instead driving Burmistrov in.

It was just a dumb hit and Letang knew better.

And I don’t know why the Pens continue to employ such imbecile announcers.

Posted by Primis on 10/18/11 at 11:25 AM ET

Primis, Any luck finding the hit online?

Posted by Paul from Motown Area on 10/18/11 at 11:27 AM ET

I haven’t found the hit online either, but I saw it live and on the replay during the game and Primis was right. The Root Sports announcers were being horribly homeriffic about this hit.

Letang had him lined up from the numbers from the get-go. If he let up at all, it wasn’t enough. I don’t know if this warrants him sitting any games (he really wasn’t going that fast to begin with), but it at least warrants a look from the league.

Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 10/18/11 at 11:39 AM ET

And I don’t know why the Pens continue to employ such imbecile announcers.

You are what you eat!  =P

I’m from Brazil, and the only way I can get to watch games is from NHL center ice
Its pretty good now for a couple of years, with HD and a nice TV hooked to the PC, but at least until last year, the wings feed wasnt always available (not sure why), and believe me, when I needed to watch the game on some feeds, it drove me crazy

Its incredible how much it differs from feed to feed, but the way things are transmitted differ so much.. Specially on not so traditional markets, its horrible sometimes
It makes me feel really lucky to be a Wings fan

Btw, why the heck all the canadian transmitions get such a lower angle and why does the ice seen yellow on them??
Oiler’s feed seens like you are at ice level, sometimes!

Posted by Zqto from Brazil on 10/18/11 at 11:45 AM ET

Believe me !! I HATE Steigerwald & Errey is drunk half the time

Posted by Evilpens on 10/18/11 at 12:11 PM ET

Somehow you just know this must be the Islanders fault!

Posted by hockey1919 from mid-atlantic on 10/18/11 at 12:15 PM ET

TSN added it to their video recap. Same circumstances as the hit on Sedin a few weeks ago; Letang lines Burmistrov up, Burmistrov turns his back at the last second after he’s committed to the hit. Difference is Letang, while not driving him through the wall, didn’t exactly let up that much either (regardless of what Errey thinks), while the guy who boarded Sedin nearly snowsprayed trying to stop.

Don’t know how Letang could be suspended given the reasoning for the Malone non-suspension (hitee changed the circumstances of the hit just prior to contact). Then again, I don’t know how Bouchard could have been suspended given the reasoning for the Malone non-suspension, either.

Posted by steviesteve on 10/18/11 at 12:27 PM ET

Burmistrov didn’t turn any more into the hit than he was when Letang lined him up. There was never a point where Burmistrov was at an angle in reference to Letang where the Penguins’ defenseman could have made that hit cleanly.

Letang expected the ability to angle him off up the boards with a hit, but Burmistrov cut his momentum up ice off very early and Letang adjusted by making sure he still hit him.  I still don’t see enough to warrant a suspension, but I’d be ok if Letang pulled the same fine that Zuccarello got.

And the reason Bouchard got suspended, despite the Malone explanation is that laying a hit is something that a hockey player is expected to be able to do. Maliciously swinging your stick at another player is never within the rules.

Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 10/18/11 at 12:41 PM ET

Whelp, Brian Strait recalled. So much for the ‘placed himself in a vulnerable position immediately prior to the hit’ exemption. Guess that’s only for Malone.

Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 10/18/11 at 10:41 AM ET

Zuccarello changed HIS body position immediately prior to the hit to make sure it was a board (though a pretty benign one). Letang’s was on the shoulder until Burmistrov’s last pivot, which happened about a microsecond before contact. And no player in history has been assessed a penalty for attempting to slash the gloves of a guy who whacked him in the nuts with his stick on a faceoff until Bouchard.

Posted by steviesteve on 10/18/11 at 12:56 PM ET

no player in history has been assessed a penalty for attempting to slash the gloves of a guy who whacked him in the nuts with his stick on a faceoff

I haven’t been watching NHL hockey since the league began, but in my short time, I’ve seen quite a few instances of a guy getting a slashing call for hitting another guy in the hands on a faceoff.  Not sure how many of them involved nut-shots, so it’s entirely possible that you’re right, but the fact remains that maliciously swinging your stick at somebody is a penalty while checking somebody is not.

Letang’s was on the shoulder until Burmistrov’s last pivot, which happened about a microsecond before contact.

You must process time slower than I do. Burmistrov adjusted by stopping his movement up the boards and then Letang adjusted to make sure he still made solid contact with the back of the player. This isn’t about his last-second turn to face the boards. Even if he hadn’t made that pivot after stopping, the hit as Letang laid it was not a clean one.

If you read the rule on boarding, there’s actually nothing in that rule which has anything to do with what direction the player is facing. Players are forbidden from making a check which causes a player to be thrown violently into the boards.

Letang had time to shut off the up-ice angle and make a play on the puck without creaming a guy from full-behind or slight-behind and he chose to lay the hit anyway.

Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 10/18/11 at 01:11 PM ET

You must process time slower than I do.

Letang was a foot away and the numbers were still not angled toward him.

That’s about a tenth of a second prior to impact and Burmistrov’s back still isn’t totally facing him. Regardless of your superhuman time-processing abilities, human beings on ice skates can’t react that quickly, which was the basis for why Ryan Malone was not suspended for his preseason incident.

Strictly speaking, you are correct that the boarding rule says nothing about checking from behind, but, like an instance where a player is assessed a slashing penalty for hitting the hands of a guy who nutshots him on a faceoff, good luck finding an instance in which that penalty was ever called without it.

Posted by steviesteve on 10/18/11 at 01:25 PM ET

good luck finding an instance in which that penalty was ever called without it.

Are you new to hockey?  Have you really never seen a boarding call that didn’t include a hit from behind?

Posted by Garth on 10/18/11 at 01:29 PM ET

good luck finding an instance in which that penalty was ever called without it.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/Boxscore.htm?id=2010021166

18:07 first period - Justin Abdelkader boarding.

If you’ve got an opportunity to look at that one in the vault, Justin Abdelkader was sent off for hitting Martin Erat from the DIRECT FRONT and got a boarding call.

Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 10/18/11 at 01:31 PM ET

As for the picture, that sure as shit looks like Letang lining up a guy from behind to check him violently into the boards.

Your argument about the numbers directly facing him or only mostly facing him doesn’t matter. Letang had no business delivering this check and the penalty was a good call.

Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 10/18/11 at 01:33 PM ET

Lets see if Shanahan suspends a ‘star player’ with the same severity of the non stars!

Posted by Faux Rumors from Globally- Here, there, Everywhere on 10/18/11 at 01:36 PM ET

Video added to the post.

Posted by Paul from Motown Area on 10/18/11 at 01:56 PM ET

The penalty’s fine. If a guy ducks his head into your stick, you still get a high sticking penalty unless it happens to be on the follow-through of your shot. There are so many phantom, marginal and blown calls throughout the year that it’s hard to object to any single call as some sort of injustice, no matter what it is, but certainly two minutes for this isn’t anything to get bent out of shape about.

The supplementary discipline, if coming,  is what I don’t like, and I don’t like it because it would ignore Shanahan’s own precedents and the language he has used in every ruling to date. Much like the Bouchard suspension.

18:07 first period - Justin Abdelkader boarding.

Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 10/18/11 at 11:31 AM ET

If that’s from the front then that’s a new way to call the rule. And no, in 4 years of college hockey and about 20 years watching it I’ve never seen someone collect a boarding penalty for hitting someone else in the chest, if that’s what Abdelkaider really did.

Posted by steviesteve on 10/18/11 at 02:09 PM ET

Video tells me the players started out more/less side by side. But Burmistrov quickly got a step ahead of Letang in the race for the puck setting up the hit in the numbers.

I’m not sure it’s suspension worthy either, but it was certainly boarding.

Posted by Nate A from Detroit-ish on 10/18/11 at 02:17 PM ET

Video of Abdelkader boarding penalty for you Stevie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDSYsfy1Ks

Clearly a hit from the front.

Posted by Valek from Chicago on 10/18/11 at 02:24 PM ET

if that’s what Abdelkaider really did.

Judge for yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDSYsfy1Ks

Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 10/18/11 at 02:32 PM ET

I thought it was a hit from behind and he should have gotten 5 and the game.

Boarding to me is when you hit a guy from the front or the side while he is in a dengerious position with reference to the boards.  How the refs got into calling a hit from behind a boarding call is beyond me.

Now, if the right call was made during the game I’d say it was dealt with and lets move on.  But since the refs failed to make the right call the Sheriff has to deal with it.

He should get a game imo.  Those hits can be just as dangerous as the ones to the head.

Posted by WingMan from The Q C on 10/18/11 at 02:33 PM ET

And no, in 4 years of college hockey and about 20 years watching it I’ve never seen someone collect a boarding penalty for hitting someone else in the chest, if that’s what Abdelkader really did.

You should watch more hockey then.  Possibly with your eyes open.  Boarding is about where the player is in relation to the boards, not where he is in relation to the guy who’s hitting him.

I honestly can’t believe you’ve never seen a boarding penalty that wasn’t a hit from behind.  It completely baffles me.

Posted by Garth on 10/18/11 at 02:36 PM ET

Boarding penalty (rule 41.1) wording is very open to interpretation. “causes the opponent to be thrown violently in the boards.” and is distinct from checking from behind (rule 43). So it is rare that it happens from the front, but only because players that are hit in the front are usually more prepared for a hit and rarely fly into the boards.

Posted by hockey1919 from mid-atlantic on 10/18/11 at 02:37 PM ET

Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 10/18/11 at 12:32 PM ET

That’s a horrible, awful, wretched call. The only thing I can think is the back referee (the one with a good angle didn’t have his hand up, I notice) thought it was a forearm to the face and the closer one told him the only call that could possibly fit now that a call was already made (when it shouldn’t have been) was boarding, due to the ambiguous nature of the way it’s worded.

Posted by steviesteve on 10/18/11 at 02:49 PM ET

Posted by steviesteve on 10/18/11 at 12:49 PM ET

Textbook boarding.

Posted by Garth on 10/18/11 at 02:54 PM ET

Strange that the referee with a good look at the Abdelkaider hit thought it was a great big textbook nothing.

Posted by steviesteve on 10/18/11 at 03:20 PM ET

inb4 the referee should watch as much hockey as Garth

Posted by steviesteve on 10/18/11 at 03:21 PM ET

Speaking for everyone who has Letang on their fantasy team in a league that rewards penalty minutes, I think he deserved a 10 minute game misconduct but no further suspension.

Posted by awould on 10/18/11 at 04:01 PM ET

If no one has ever seen a boarding call that wasn’t a hit from behind, may I offer the Helm on Jovanovski hit in the playoffs last season?

Posted by Chris in Hockey Hell from Ann Arbor, MI but LIVING in Columbia, TN on 10/18/11 at 04:07 PM ET

2 game suspension for Letang

Posted by Evilpens on 10/18/11 at 06:08 PM ET

And justice is served.

Posted by WingsFanInBeanLand from Where the GM likes his team. on 10/18/11 at 06:14 PM ET

Shanahan video in new post.

Posted by Paul from Motown Area on 10/18/11 at 06:15 PM ET