Sunday, May 11, 2008

Justice!!

If you watched the Dallas Stars face the Detroit Red Wings yesterday, or if you watched any highlight shows, you'll be familiar with Mike Ribeiro's 'slash' on Chris Osgood. If you didn't catch it, watch the clip below.



The NHL announced today there will be fines for Steve Ott, Mike Ribeiro and yes, even Chris Osgood, but there will be no suspensions.

Now, I'm not going to claim that Mike Ribeiro was in the right here. Clearly this was the act of a desperate and very frustrated man, and in no way is a two hand slash to the chest acceptable.

That said, what Chris Osgood did was simply an embarrassment. The way he went down one would have likely concluded Osgood had taken a hit to the head or blown an ACL, and the way he stayed down implied there was no chance of him possibly returning to play later in the series, let alone happily answer reporters questions after the game. Christ, I thought he was due in ICU for at least a month. I would hope somebody at least provided Osgood with a band-aid.

"I do have a lot of padding up there but it got me in the side where I didn't have much," he said of the Ribeiro slash. "It did hurt a bit.

"It was kind of a full swing right to the side. But I'll be fine, I'm sure. A little sore, but I'll be fine." (TSN)

Is Osgood going for an Oscar or a Cup?

Forget the fact Osgood gets paid to take 90MPH pucks off his chest for a living, that slash wouldn't have hurt a man without an Ironman-like chest protector.

Again, what Ribeiro did was classless and I would have fully supported a Ribeiro suspension, but there is no way the league can look at the incident on replays and ignore the triple lutz that occurs right after the slash. Ribeiro made himself look bad, Osgood made the game look bad and practically dared the league to support his clown act.

Good on the NHL for washing their hands of the whole incident.

2 comments:

walkinvisible said...

maybe osgood was diving/wiggling purely BECAUSE it was a slash at the hands of the best diver/wiggler in the league's historty.

this is the theory i'm going with, even if it's a longshot, because i hate mike ribeiro just. that. much.

;)

MacS said...

If it makes you feel any better Micky Ribs season is about to be over any day now...