Finally...

I was finally able to get to the Buffaslugs website but before we slice and dice the Golisano letter, I was watching the second intermission of the Buffslugs-Ottawa game and the MSG crew dusted off a tape of Anaheim @ Calgary from 2001.

Current Senator Head Coach Bryan Murray was the Head Coach in Anaheim when Craig Berube ran the Anaheim goaltender behind the net. Apparently Murray then sent somebody out to run the Calgary goaltender and then sent somebody to fight Jerome Iginla. What this proves is beyond me because intentional contact with a goaltender has been verboten in the NHL for awhile now. But apparently, the Buffaslugs think it means something. I half expected them to then pull out a tape of a Caps-Flyers bench clearing brawl from Murray's days with the Caps.

Now, here's the .pdf version of the Golisano letter. Reading the letter, you really have to laugh. Imbeciles like Matthew Sigafoose, who runs the Ultimate Fighting on Ice Fans.com, accuse the likes of me of wanting to take hitting completely out of the game. For the record in case anybody hasn't been able to figure it out, I only want the sideshow fighting gone. Hitting is fine with me and the Chris Neil hit was clean and legal. Drury is the one at fault for not only letting his guard down (even his owner admits that) but for not having his helmet on tight. But Mr. Golisano makes it clear that he has a problem with hitting in the NHL. I'm curious as to what if anything the neanderthal crowd has to say about this letter.

If the NHL is going to change a rule it should mandate that all helmets have a minimum amount of padding and that players have to have their helmets attached firmly to their heads. It wasn't the hit Neil put on Drury that did the damage, it was Drury's unprotected head hitting the ice that caused the damage.

What I love though is how he says that "{T}here is nothing entertaining about a big man hitting a smaller man in the head." Well, if the NHL did something about that, Eric Lindros wouldn't be able to hit anybody because we all know he avoids anybody even close to his size. How do we enforce this Mr. Golisano? Do we institute a minimum or maximum height for players? This is Larry Brooks stupid folks.

Of course what makes all of this ironic is that Loserville...er...Buffalo is a town that idolizes Rob Ray. I understand that guy was pretty tough when he played and might even have a rule named after him. Maybe if I have the time, I'll dust off some of the Caps-Sabres tapes from the 1998 playoffs. I think it might be interesting to count the number of charges and elbows Michael Peca and other Sabres threw in that series. They were advertising their mission to hit Sergei Gonchar every time he had the puck and many of them were late and cheap.

Of course that was before Golisano owned the team, but the Buffaslugs have shaky legs to stand on when complaining about dirty pool.