Discipline for this at all?

[iceNsteel 0]

Coaches and players are not on the same level, the accountability is therefore different. Playing the puck while you're on the bench is a minor penalty. Just like tripping someone while you're on the ice is a minor penalty. In either case you are breaking the rules to gain a competitive advantage. How many guys intentionally hook or trip to stop scoring chances? To be honest I just fail to see any logic in the idea that if Logan Couture had used his stick to take out Stoll's legs and gotten away with it then it's no biggie, but playing the puck from the bench is somehow the end of the world.

And I'll stand by what I said. If you've actually got the time and energy to get bent out of shape by the outcome a game that has no real impact on you whatsoever it's time to evaluate priorities. It's just a form of entertainment.

[Gr8erade 1]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Video-Another-sideline-tripping-incident-earns-?urn=nfl-297986

Here's a player held accountable for sideline action...

The point is, the league shouldn't be looking the other way on players who get involved in the play from the bench. Especially ones who giggle about it afterwards. It looks bad. And your point about the play having no outcome on the game is just plain wrong. You don't know what may have occurred if he hadn't stuck his stick out and poked the stick away any more than anyone else does. The point is that he DID play a role in the game from the bench. If a player comes off the bench to fight, there are serious repercussions. If a player now decides to lean out from the bench and throw an elbow on a player skating by, you probably think that should be a simple penalty. The point I think you've really missed (and frankly you seem to be the one reacting emotionally) is that players shouldn't also have to keep their heads up for players who are not on the ice. Skating down the wing should not mean that any player should have to worry about a poke check coming off the bench. And in my mind, what Clowe did is not the same as one player hooking another while the game is in play. Would you like to know why people are talking about this? Because it is different.

If I were the referee, he"d have been given a game misconduct. And if I were the league, I'd have fined him. And if I were Clowe, I'd be embarrassed that I was such an embarrassment.

Doesn't a fan who throws something out on the ice get tossed out of the building and the home team takes a penalty? Strange that a guy sitting on the bench can get away with it and joke about it in front of the cameras later, right?

Probably to anyone but a Sharks fan. But if I were the league, he'd have been fined as an example.

There was a reason why anyone had a microphone in front of Ryan Clowe's face after that game.

[215BroadStBullies610 435]

It's the officials' fault for not making the appropriate call. The act deserved a bench minor penalty. That's all. Not a suspension. Not a fine. Not a game misconduct. This is like throwing you stick or purposely falling on the puck as a skater. Yeah, it's a classless move but nothing to for people to get worked up about. The officials need to have a better handle on the game. A two minute minor should be assessed for next 'smooth character' who tries to pulls this off.

[Gr8erade 1]

It's the officials' fault for not making the appropriate call. The act deserved a bench minor penalty. That's all. Not a suspension. Not a fine. Not a game misconduct. This is like throwing you stick or purposely falling on the puck as a skater. Yeah, it's a classless move but nothing to for people to get worked up about. The officials need to have a better handle on the game. A two minute minor should be assessed for next 'smooth character' who tries to pulls this off.

If the officials had made the correct call, then Clowe wouldn't have been sitting there with a smug grin making cute comments post-game. So I agree, a fine wouldn't have been necessary in that case. But since the officials didn't get it right, the NHL should have done something to let Clowe (and everyone else) know that what he did was inappropriate and wouldn't be tolerated. Especially in light of Clowe's comments afterwards. And a fine would have accomplished that.

Instead the officials missed it, the NHL shrugged, and it made highlight reel after highlight reel (along with his comments) which basically made the league, the officials and Clowe look pretty bad.

[iceNsteel 0]

http://sports.yahoo....?urn=nfl-297986

Here's a player held accountable for sideline action...

Again, you're trying to compare apples and oranges. Clowe reached out and tapped the puck. That's a minor infraction of the rules. Stepping out and blind siding someone is dangerous conduct with a grave risk of injury. There's a rather notable difference between tapping a puck to cheat, which is the same as any other penalty, and doing something that could harm another person.

The point is, the league shouldn't be looking the other way on players who get involved in the play from the bench. Especially ones who giggle about it afterwards. It looks bad.

Not really, he committed a minor penalty and wasn't caught. There are hundreds of other players that get away with the same during the course of a season, you're just having an emotional response.

And your point about the play having no outcome on the game is just plain wrong. You don't know what may have occurred if he hadn't stuck his stick out and poked the stick away any more than anyone else does. The point is that he DID play a role in the game from the bench.

I never said he had no impact. I pointed out that your assumption that it did is flawed and illogical. It is impossible to know what impact it had, if any at all.

If a player comes off the bench to fight, there are serious repercussions.

Again, you have a failure to think logically. Clowe committed a minor penalty, if caught it would have been a two minute penalty. Any player that engages in a fight receives a 10 minute penalty. Fighting is more serious than a minor penalty, hence there are more serious potential consequences. You must compare like things to have valid comparisons.

If a player now decides to lean out from the bench and throw an elbow on a player skating by, you probably think that should be a simple penalty. The point I think you've really missed (and frankly you seem to be the one reacting emotionally) is that players shouldn't also have to keep their heads up for players who are not on the ice. Skating down the wing should not mean that any player should have to worry about a poke check coming off the bench.

Not emotional in the least, you just seem to be getting increasingly frustrated because of a simple inability to prove that one minor infraction of the rules is difference than another. A player shouldn't have to worry about being poke checked from the bench. A player also should have to worry about being tripped, slashed, hooked, or interfered with, that is why such conduct is against the rules. Yet the reality of the game is that such play does occur and as a result we have a set of rules codified and officials on the ice to enforce it. If players never committed a penalty you wouldn't need refs after all.

And in my mind, what Clowe did is not the same as one player hooking another while the game is in play. Would you like to know why people are talking about this? Because it is different.

You're welcome to any opinion you'd like, that doesn't make it correct. We're talking about this because it's less common, and therefore has a shock factor that would have have existed had Couture just tripped Stoll. Both are minor penalties per the rules, it's merely a matter of tripping occurs in almost every game, what Clowe did does not.

If I were the referee, he"d have been given a game misconduct.

You're not the ref, and if you were then you'd be subject to discipline. The rules of the game do not allow you to give a game misconduct for what is a minor penalty. The job of a ref is to enforce the rules as they are written, not his judgement based on his personal feelings about one violation of the rules. It would be like a ref handing out misconducts for hooking minors because he really hates hooking.

And if I were the league, I'd have fined him. And if I were Clowe, I'd be embarrassed that I was such an embarrassment.

Then the league would have to determine why they don't fine every player that is guilty of a minor penalty.

Doesn't a fan who throws something out on the ice get tossed out of the building and the home team takes a penalty? Strange that a guy sitting on the bench can get away with it and joke about it in front of the cameras later, right?

Probably to anyone but a Sharks fan. But if I were the league, he'd have been fined as an example.

There was a reason why anyone had a microphone in front of Ryan Clowe's face after that game.

You mean like everyone that throws a hat on the ice? A lot of penalties going unenforced there, clearly the league needs to start some fines.

Sure there's a reason, it was an uncommon occurrence.

[Vulcan7905 88]

Look at rule 63.4 for hats thrown on the ice.

[Gr8erade 1]

Yes, I get that you feel that someone committing penalties from the bench is no different than someone committing them on the ice. I feel differently. And sadly, the NHL agrees with you.

A play like that in the waning minutes of a close game with playoff implications that goes unseen and uncalled is bad for hockey.

Clowe's comments afterwards, also bad for hockey.

NHL's response to all of this, also, in my opinion, bad for hockey.

They could have reacted differently (they did when they didn't like Sean Avery's antics with Martin Brodeur - so they most certainly CAN react to conduct that they don't like) but they didn't.

They could have fined Clowe for his comments using the "conduct detrimental to the league or the game of hockey" criteria they used on the aforementioned Sean Avery when he was talking about an ex-girlfriend, but they didn't. His comments could easily have been seen to have made a bad situation worse, but the NHL didn't agree with me.

And they all came off looking pretty foolish, in my opinion.

You shrug. I find it disappointing. You should have probably read the post that I was agreeing with a little more closely, by the way.

[Penguinsfanatic 0]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-2oTR4Nq3A

A strength and conditioning coach from the jets coaching staff trips a dolphin palyer. The coach was fired, fined, and ridiculed by everyone in sports media. Now doing what he did and doing what Clowe did are similar, not the same. Did the play affect the game? Doesn't matter if you throw in woulda, coulda, shoulda, it still affected the game none the less. Should he be chastised for what he did no, he did something dumb, which could be said about any illegal hit now a days too, but they still pay for it