Should Tootoo be suspended?

[LemaireisGOD]

Modano is a star player...and the hit was on him, so anyone should expect an immediate response. The player skated in and Tootoo sucker punches him. Say whatever you wish; he kept his hands in his glove and threw a punch at a guy who wasn't expecting it. Its pretty sad you keep defending this puke that you allegedly do not like. Raised his fist and Robidas skated into it? Riiight. Defending himself? Riiight...with a pre-emptive gloved punch sounds more like OFFENSE-ive to me. If Tootoo is so tough he should've immediately dropped the gloves and I'm sure Robidas would've obliged. Robidas has had a few fights of his own in his career; but did Tootoo honor the code and drop the gloves? No...he threw a punch early and thus it was a cheapshot.

Toots hasn't gotten under my skin, but the next time he decides to throw a punch on Boogaard he better be prepared to go toe to toe with him otherwise he's a gutless coward. Ruutu, Avery, Cooke they're all gutless cowards...and Tootoo will be added to the list unless he throws down with the big boys.

I am well aware what the role of an agitator is; but if you're going to sucker punch you damn well better take the beating for it. I love fights as much as most hockey fans do, and you have to respect the code if you're to have any respect at all. Tootoo doesn't respect the code...so as far as I am concerned then enforcers are inclined to run him and beat the living hell out of him if he's not going to follow the code.

I hope Tootoo gets butchered the next time he gets on the ice. If he responds as I think he will by either using his stick or throwing punches with his gloves it will only prove how much of a gutless wonder he really is.

[Nazzy03]

Originally Posted by LemaireisGOD

I am well aware what the role of an agitator is; but if you're going to sucker punch you damn well better take the beating for it. I love fights as much as most hockey fans do, and you have to respect the code if you're to have any respect at all. Tootoo doesn't respect the code...so as far as I am concerned then enforcers are inclined to run him and beat the living hell out of him if he's not going to follow the code.

I agree with that! He should have stepped up to Robidas and fought him instead of cowardly punch him.

[MtAvsfn]

Just strikes me as funny.
Robidas wanted to talk it out - Hockey Hearsay - Sportsnet.ca
Robidas wanted to talk it out

Perhaps still suffering lingering side affects from his concussion, Stephane Robidas says he just wanted to talk with Jordan Tootoo and had no plans to jump him moments before being punched in the face Saturday night.

Robidas told Tuesday's Dallas Morning News that he feels good, and explained that he had no idea Tootoo would come out swinging with his gloves on.

“If I go in and try to jump him, that’s my fault,” Robidas said. “But I’m just going in there to let him know, ‘Hey, you don’t hit Modano like that, and if you want to go, we’ll go.’ That’s all I was doing. I wasn’t going to jump him. But then, boom.”

[LemaireisGOD]

I think Robidas is full of crap if he expects me to believe he simply wished to "talk" to Tootoo. Robidas has fought in the past and he is no stranger to the penalty box; and I believe he intended to talk to Tootoo about dropping the gloves and nothing more.

[BigBadBlueBird]

The standard operating proceedure in things like this is player hits star, star's teammate comes in and shoves player around a bit. Then one of two things usually happen: either a fight breaks out, or both teams come together and mill around a bit.

That was the most likely action that Robidas was intending to do: give Tootoo a little shove, and see if he wanted to go.

Tootoo's overreacted with a cheap shot, and a guy being sent to hospital. For a guy who runs around a lot, one would think he would know what the expected response would be.

He is most fortunate that he has actually toned it down a bit since junior. If he played in the NHL like he did in the WHL, Tootoo's career would already be over. Someone would have killed him by now.

[Laperriere22]

Robidas has always been a stand-up kind of player; I've yet to see him jump anybody and personally, it looked to me that Robidas was going to initiate something, but nothing out of the ordinary. And certainly nothing that was going to put Tootoo in such immediate danger that he had to start winging punches out of the clear blue sky.

[TITANFAN]

Originally Posted by LemaireisGOD

2. Let's face it...many people come to watch star players on the ice...not to watch Tootoo's dirty plays. Its plays like the one we've seen from Simon, Tootoo and Bertuzzi that hurt the league's image; and think about it, for many sports fans in the U.S. the only hockey play they probably will see all season will be Tootoo's sucker punch or Simon's stick swing. Not just for the players' safety, but the players now have a vested interest in the financial state of the game. The game needs to attract more fans, and crap like that won't bring in a lot of new viewers.

Not to interupt here but just had to throw this in.

I'm one of the fans that the NHL is trying to attract. 45 year old working man that loves sports and loves Nashville. I've had season tickets to the Titans games since they got here in 97. (Well Memphis back in 97 but I did drive/ride over 3000 miles that year to see em play.) I've been to a few (3) Preds game and did have a great time while there but after the Titans tickets and parking and tailgating there and then ya throw in camping.....HUGE camping fan.....the entertainment $$$$ get chewed pretty hard. Ya also consider the once a month take the wonderful wife out to dinner, which for the record, is waaaay better then any of this ole sports stuff, and there ain't much left.

I've said this to say that when it comes to on ice fighting.....I'd just as soon not see it. If I want to see a fight I'll go see a fight. I think hockey is a great sport but I just don't get all the blood shed while your indeed, just playing a game. I don't have any young, under 16 years old, kids left in the house but if I did, I'd have to think hard about taking them to see a game where men drop their sticks and start whoopin' on each other. Let alone the every so often decapitation.

I don't know guys.....Seems like if ya play a game where ya know it's coming sooner or later, and ya go after a guy, and he gets what looks like a lucky FIRST punch in........WeLL GueSS WhaT? YOU PLAY HOCKEY!!!!! Take it like you was fixin' to try to dish it out. It's all a part of the game??? Right?????

jim

[LemaireisGOD]

I don't know guys.....Seems like if ya play a game where ya know it's coming sooner or later, and ya go after a guy, and he gets what looks like a lucky FIRST punch in........WeLL GueSS WhaT? YOU PLAY HOCKEY!!!!! Take it like you was fixin' to try to dish it out. It's all a part of the game??? Right?????

No, not quite. Its one thing to punch a person with your gloves OFF, its another to do it with them on. Punching someone with your glove on is cheap especially when they had no idea you were going to start swinging right then and there. Its not a lucky first punch; if people from Tennessee think that's what it is then its clear they haven't watched enough hockey. There is a unwritten code that goes along with this. It does not condone sucker punching like what Tootoo did.

The Code basically states that a hit on a star player will invite immediate retaliation, and the most common form of that is what has been stated earlier. Robidas went to defend his teamate with the intention of fighting Tootoo. He wasn't going to club him with his stick or do something brash he was skating over to initiate a fight. If Tootoo didn't want to dance it merely would've been a shoving match...but if Tootoo was willing to go then they'd both drop their gloves and fight and let the best man win. Instead...Tootoo sucker punches the guy so therefore he violated the Code. That's the problem here. The Code is a system of accountability the players have control over; when you violate the code then the league needs to step in and punish you harshly. I think 5 games for what he did was pretty meager IMO.

[jwhouk]

I think the five game suspension was just enough. But when's Modano going to be suspended for at least two games for his slash?

[Drury77]

Originally Posted by bedir than average

PredDave, a brave man does not fight without warning, without notice. The cowardice on another man's part does not justify another man's cowardice.

The NHL needs casual sports fans and it needs to decide if it wants to be closer to gladitorial combat (which can be popular see Wrestling and Mixed Martial Arts) or closer to the premier sports in North America where the goal is winning, not vengence.

Carmello Anthony got 15-20 games in a same length season for the same act. Five is a rather pathetic attempt to placate the media, but does nothing to address the fact the NHL had the opportunity to once again be part of the "Big Four" of prosports. It is support for this overt violence and cowardice that haunts hockey with TV rating similar to MLS as many families don't want to teach their kids that violence is the just response to violence.

Sorry but I don't care if the casual fan ever watches a game. The real fans of the sport are being alienated by trying to soften the game and pussify it. Sorry but we don't see droves of fans shying away from the NFL with the viscious hits and and off the field incidents.

Hockey is a physcial sport and if your gonna go to a gun fight you better have ur gun up.

[bedir than average]

Except that it was a sporting event, not a gun fight.

The referees are there to referee. By losing casual fans you are ready for the best hockey in the world to not be in North America. Because if the NHL continues to hemorage casual support Europe will pass Canada and the USA.

[drewdat]

He turned and punched. I don't think there's much to suggest a moment's premeditation there. 3 to 5 games to maintain your league-wide identity crisis, sure. Just don't think for a minute that if Robidas hadn't gotten hurt, ESPN hadn't put it on heavy rotation (they pick funny times to turn into Queen's English prudes, don't they... a little Versus versus?), and if it hadn't been so (for lack of a better term and perhaps tact) visually impressive that the NHL would have reviewed it.

[Amberelise]

All I'm going to say on this subject is this:

Through my many years of watching hockey I've seen a lot of plays that were a lot worse than this that ended with nothing beyond a 2 minute penalty because the other player wasn't injured.

Imagine if Modano's hack broke Tootoo's back.

What then?

I hate to sound like Brett Hull because my God do I hate him. . . but the biggest problem with hockey right now is that the players don't know what they can and can't do because officiating changes it not only through out the season or from night to night, but even throughout a game.

[Nazzy03]

Originally Posted by Amberelise

the biggest problem with hockey right now is that the players don't know what they can and can't do because officiating changes it not only through out the season or from night to night, but even throughout a game.

That is a good point, only I dont think "is this going to be a penalty if I punch him in the face" was going through Tootoo's head at the time. He saw the man coming at him, and he reacted, same way anyone else would have reacted.

The leauge does need to take out the instigating rule, so Tootoo's actions during the game cant go un noticed.

The ref's need to build a structure for the penalties they are going to call, but I dont think that has anything to do with the KO punch. You can make these guys play with styro foam sticks and plastic pucks, but there will always be players getting KO'ed and painfully injured.

Players like Tootoo need to duke it out after doing something stupid, but thats right INSTIGATING..

[Drury77]

Originally Posted by bedir than average

Except that it was a sporting event, not a gun fight.

The referees are there to referee. By losing casual fans you are ready for the best hockey in the world to not be in North America. Because if the NHL continues to hemorage casual support Europe will pass Canada and the USA.

The gun fight thing was an analogy and I know you know that.

Secondly, the NHL as an organization has catered to the casual fan so much that what made the game great is being lost. They are so busy worrying about the the "casual" fan that they are forgetting the "diehards" who stuck with them despite being slapped in the face with a long ass lockout that may have been needed and might not have been.

Thirdly, the catering to the casual fan has changed the game in ways that didn't need to be fixed. You don't fix something that isn't broke. I mean the delay of penalty for the puck leaving the ice surface is the most ridiculous rule change, yet somehow that's supposed to better the game. They want to take the fighting as a whole away from teh game (prior to the tootoo & orr incidents) because it's too barbaric. Yet ppl watch boxing, and kickboxing, and extreme fighting, and yes the precious NFL, all equally violent.

Go figure, all these changes and all they are doing is alienating the "diehards" but I guess we don't matter anymore cuz we're supposed to care more about those fans who most likely wont watch the game no matter what the NHL does. Period!