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Hall Facing Suspension

by Lisa McRitchie on 02/22/13 at 11:15 AM ET
Comments (1)

With the Oilers’ record falling, and the short season becoming shorter, there is no room for error. There is especially no room for lengthy suspensions due to atrocious hits. But that’s exactly what we can expect as the reaction from the league to Taylor Hall’s knee on knee hit on Cal Clutterbuck in Edmonton Thurdsay night.

Hall felt that it was a cleanish hit, that he used more of his hip to take down the Wild’s most famous mustached player. But from the view of most hockey fans, Hall made a big mistake.

 

 

Oilers’ fans erupted when a similar hit was made by John Michael Liles on Ryan Smyth back in 2006, but are not used to seeing one of their own as the perpetrator.

 

The Oilers’ have long been seen as a soft and easy to play team, but the solution is not to make the move to a brute squad. Of course I can’t imagine that the first overall pick of the 2010 NHL entry draft set out to hit Clutterbuck with the intention of taking out his knee, but rather that he set out to make the hit, but wasn’t watching the puck and had a lapse in judgment.

But even so, Hall awaits a Shannabanning, and rightly so. How long a suspension is yet to be seen. Conservative bets would be 2 or 3 games, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was 5 games.

Clutterbuck may not have led his team in goals, points or even penalty minutes, but the veteran will be missed from the Wild’s lineup and now so will Hall.

Filed in: Edmonton Oilers, | Oil Patch | Permalink
  Tags: cal+clutterbuck, taylor+hall

Comments

Hootinani's avatar

The 2 hits were only similar in that both victims got hit in the knee.  Liles saw Smith was going to beat him and stuck out his leg to interfere.  Hall went to make a clean hip check, but just wasnt lined up right.

So Hall’s assessment is pretty accurate, accept that he did end up catching his knee.  This should be a one gamer, tops.

Posted by Hootinani on 02/22/13 at 12:12 PM ET

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Lisa McRitchie is a fairly new writer, online at least, but makes up for inexperience with passion for the game of hockey and memories of Mrs. Leskiw’s English AP class; who knew they would pay off one day.

Oil Patch focuses on the Edmonton Oilers, the Edmonton Oil Kings, The Oklahoma City Barons and Team Canada Hockey with game coverage, news updates, speculation and interviews.

Although the Oilers have had a difficult past decade… or three, here at Oil Patch, the future looks bright.

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