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[Hit] Couture levels Lucic; Lucic Goes after Couture

Odd.

By Odd.
in General Hockey Discussion

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Cerridwen Canucks Second-Line

Cerridwen

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Is anyone really surprised? He likes to dish it but can't take it. Lucic is such a crybaby........it's hockey, not ice dancing, as another hockey player used to say. Thank the hockey gawds his whiny ass isn't a player on our Canucks team as so many people seemed to want at one time.

I'm about the farthest thing there is from being a Logan Couture fan but that hit was a beaut!! ::D

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Down by the River Canucks Franchise Player

Down by the River

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Former NHL player and ref Paul Stewart really ripped into Lucic:

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Paul-Stewart/Lucic-Does-Himself-No-Favors/196/71519

Link fixed, story in spoilers.

Let me tell you a little story from my playing days. One night, I was playing against the Whalers. I saw Mark Howe coming and dropped him heavily with a body check. He got up very unsteadily and went off the ice.

My first thought: "Oh, crap. Gordie is going to get me."

I don't care how tough you were on the ice or off the ice. Even among policeman types such as myself in my playing days, Gordie was an intimidating opponent. No one wanted to face the wrath of Gordie, and not just because he was among the best of the best in our game's history. He always lived by the credo that it was better to give than receive.

Off the ice, it meant that Gordie was a kind, gentle and generous man. On the ice, Gordie was plenty generous, too -- generous in giving out free bruises, lost teeth and, if you really crossed him, stitches -- but the polar opposite of kind and gentle. There was purpose to it, though. It wasn't blind rage.

I had my head on a swivel, just waiting for Gordie to pay me back for the hit on Mark. Like Gordie, Mark was a highly skilled player. Unlike his dad, Mark was not a big guy. He was someone who was much more a finesse player who relied on his smarts and skill than someone who would bowl you over or create space with his elbows.

Finally, I found myself in the corner with Marty Howe. I wondered if Marty was going to try to take a shot at me, but he didn't. I asked him if Gordie was angry about the hit on Mark.

"No, it was a clean hit," Marty said. "No problem."

Even within the normal course of a game, going into the corners with Gordie was like the Red Badge of Courage. It was a painful sacrifice to make. Very few dared to initiate a hit on Gordie, even in his 40s and 50s, and no one was foolish enough to try a dirty hit. He might not get you back that night but, rest assured, there would a payback.

With Mark Messier, it was the same way. He'd hit to hurt and he had a long memory if he perceived a dirty hit. Something else the two had in common: they very rarely left themselves in position to get hit in the first place. They both had awareness of their surroundings and they were the ones in control. If you happened to get them cleanly, no problem, but good luck trying it a second time.

A couple of seasons ago, I wrote a blog calling Milan Lucic a fraudulent tough guy in my estimation. I took some heat for it, especially around Boston, but people misunderstood the point.

My point about Lucic is that he puffs out his chest and fancies himself to be some sort of latter-day Messier or Gordie Howe, but he's nowhere even close to that category. He has a spoiled brat attitude -- I can hit you as I please but you can't hit me -- and loses control very easily if he does get hit.

Last night's incident with Logan Couture was a perfect case in point. If Lucic should have been mad at himself. He left himself completely vulnerable and the hip check he took was 100 percent clean (and also seen in clear view by the referee).

You know what this situation called for? Nothing. Skate away. At most, file the guy's number away in your memory back and, on some future night when he's lined up, settle up.

Instead, Lucic let the frustration of the hit and the frustration of the scoreboard get the best of him; something that happens with this guy too often. He made a beeline for Couture at the bench, who likely incensed him even further by laughing at him, and wound up with a match penalty.

To be honest, from the video I saw, I could not discern what Lucic did that merited a match penalty. The linesman seemed to be the one to notice and report it. Without being privy to the officials' report to the league, I don't know the specifics of why the call -- which carries an automatic review for potential supplementary discipline -- was made. Perhaps the linesman saw Lucic's hand get up in Couture's eyes or believed there was some intent to injure. It was hard to tell, and I could not notice anything from the TV replay view.

Match penalty or not -- and my gut feeling here is no supplementary discipline will take place here but at least a game misconduct was in order -- the bigger issue at work here is that Lucic needs to get better control of himself. One of the team leaders such as LA captain Dustin Brown or a respected assistant coach needs to pull him aside and say, "What the hell is wrong with you? You need to learn how to take a hit sometimes."

Otherwise, all Lucic does is puts a big target on his own sweater with an invitation to come hit him. It does not seem that opponents are 1/10th as scared of him as he seems to think they are. He's not Gordie Howe or Mark Messier or even a Clark Gillies. Man up, Lucic.

Respect the game, your team and your opponent and you will get a lot more respect in return than your "I'm gonna hurt you" bravado and childish tantrums when things don't go your way. The game's true tough guys do not need that sort of stuff to create legitimate intimidation.

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Jägermeister Canucks Star

Jägermeister

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Posted

Is anyone really surprised? He likes to dish it but can't take it. Lucic is such a crybaby........it's hockey, not ice dancing, as another hockey player used to say. Thank the hockey gawds his whiny ass isn't a player on our Canucks team as so many people seemed to want at one time.

Fast forward 9 months. Canucks sign Lucic in free agency.

Suddenly, everybody who whines about him now suddenly loves him.

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Cerridwen Canucks Second-Line

Cerridwen

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Link not working for me.

corner_tl.pngcorner_tr.png

Lucic Is A Fraudulent Tough Guy

May 16, 2014, 11:05 AM ET

196.jpg Paul Stewart

nhl.gif Blogger • Former NHL Referee •

Follow Paul on Twitter: @paulstewart22

As hockey tough guys go, Boston Bruins' forward Milan Lucic is a fraud. He quite literally pounds his chest and talks the talk but his actions repeatedly suggest otherwise. The things he says and does are beneath the integrity of what being a Bruin used to mean in the old-school hockey days. He has no integrity and no class.

I say he has no integrity because his actions on the ice suggest that he's just an another cowardly opportunist. Let's start with the two spearing incidents in the playoffs; one of which was among the nastiest I've seen in years. Spearing is one of hockey's most despicable and dangerous acts.

Unfortunately, the so-called Department of Player Safety decided that spearing is worth only a fine and that players won't be suspended for it during the playoffs. The precedent was set in the final game of the regular season when Philadelphia's Scott Hartnell speared Carolina's Brett Bellemore. The NHL lacked the, um, fortitude to suspend Hartnell for any playoff games and issued a fine instead.

As a result, the league back itself into a corner and has subsequently issued fines to the spearing offenders in the playoffs or simply not doing anything if the call was not made on the ice. Lucic, however, was the only repeat offender (to date) and skated away from it.

Lucic has a history of doing questionable things on the ice that show a complete lack of respect for fellow players. I think back to the way he gratuitously and mercilessly steamrolled Ryan Miller, trying to take the goaltender's head off. He got a two-minute charging minor on the play but it was basically a kamikaze attack.

As for Lucic's actions during the post-series handshake line, the player once again showed a complete lack of class and respect. Not only did his threats to Dale Weise violate the spirit of what the handshake line -- and the ever-dying Code -- is about, it smacked of being an idle threat.

Over the course of my playing and officiating careers, I had more battles than I can count. Trust me, if I had a score to settle, I did not make idle threats. If we couldn't do it right on the spot, I set a time and place, and we went at it.

As far as shaking hands afterwards goes, there were only two players whom I held a permanent grudge against for doing especially egregious things on the ice: Rick Jodzio and Bobby Schmautz.

Jodzio cross-checked me in the face, getting me for 64 stitches, a broken jaw, eight teeth spit onto the ice and a concussion. And, yes, I stayed in the game although I was in agony and dazed. I got stitched up, rode back on the team bus in frigid temperatures and had the stitches break. I ended up in the hospital and had plastic and oral surgery. Initially, my teeth had been crudely wired back into my gums. The surgeon in Binghamton did his best to fix that and the plastic surgeon worked on my face.

As for Schmautz, the SOB deliberately took a stick to my face and damn near carved out one of my eyes. No, I am not exaggerating.

Neither player showed a drop of remorse for his actions. To this day, if either one was in front of me, I'd go right at him. In fact, one of my regrets is that I once passed up an open chance to pay back Schmautz for what he did to me.

At any rate, the more I see of Milan Lucic, the more I think he's a gutless puke who deserves to get his someday. I'll tell you something else: he's not a player I'd ever want on my team. If I were Lucic's teammate, I'd be furious about the idea of having to defend him and spill my own blood -- that was my role as an enforcer -- because of situations created by his immaturity and lack of regard for his fellow players.

*********

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Paul-Stewart/Lucic-Is-A-Fraudulent-Tough-Guy/196/60086

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Chalky Canucks Third-Line

Chalky

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corner_tl.pngcorner_tr.png Lucic Is A Fraudulent Tough Guy

May 16, 2014, 11:05 AM ET [157 Comments]
196.jpg Paul Stewart

nhl.gif Blogger • Former NHL Referee • RSS • Archive • CONTACT

Follow Paul on Twitter: @paulstewart22

As hockey tough guys go, Boston Bruins' forward Milan Lucic is a fraud. He quite literally pounds his chest and talks the talk but his actions repeatedly suggest otherwise. The things he says and does are beneath the integrity of what being a Bruin used to mean in the old-school hockey days. He has no integrity and no class.

I say he has no integrity because his actions on the ice suggest that he's just an another cowardly opportunist. Let's start with the two spearing incidents in the playoffs; one of which was among the nastiest I've seen in years. Spearing is one of hockey's most despicable and dangerous acts.

Unfortunately, the so-called Department of Player Safety decided that spearing is worth only a fine and that players won't be suspended for it during the playoffs. The precedent was set in the final game of the regular season when Philadelphia's Scott Hartnell speared Carolina's Brett Bellemore. The NHL lacked the, um, fortitude to suspend Hartnell for any playoff games and issued a fine instead.

As a result, the league back itself into a corner and has subsequently issued fines to the spearing offenders in the playoffs or simply not doing anything if the call was not made on the ice. Lucic, however, was the only repeat offender (to date) and skated away from it.

Lucic has a history of doing questionable things on the ice that show a complete lack of respect for fellow players. I think back to the way he gratuitously and mercilessly steamrolled Ryan Miller, trying to take the goaltender's head off. He got a two-minute charging minor on the play but it was basically a kamikaze attack.

As for Lucic's actions during the post-series handshake line, the player once again showed a complete lack of class and respect. Not only did his threats to Dale Weise violate the spirit of what the handshake line -- and the ever-dying Code -- is about, it smacked of being an idle threat.

Over the course of my playing and officiating careers, I had more battles than I can count. Trust me, if I had a score to settle, I did not make idle threats. If we couldn't do it right on the spot, I set a time and place, and we went at it.

As far as shaking hands afterwards goes, there were only two players whom I held a permanent grudge against for doing especially egregious things on the ice: Rick Jodzio and Bobby Schmautz.

Jodzio cross-checked me in the face, getting me for 64 stitches, a broken jaw, eight teeth spit onto the ice and a concussion. And, yes, I stayed in the game although I was in agony and dazed. I got stitched up, rode back on the team bus in frigid temperatures and had the stitches break. I ended up in the hospital and had plastic and oral surgery. Initially, my teeth had been crudely wired back into my gums. The surgeon in Binghamton did his best to fix that and the plastic surgeon worked on my face.

As for Schmautz, the SOB deliberately took a stick to my face and damn near carved out one of my eyes. No, I am not exaggerating.

Neither player showed a drop of remorse for his actions. To this day, if either one was in front of me, I'd go right at him. In fact, one of my regrets is that I once passed up an open chance to pay back Schmautz for what he did to me.

At any rate, the more I see of Milan Lucic, the more I think he's a gutless puke who deserves to get his someday. I'll tell you something else: he's not a player I'd ever want on my team. If I were Lucic's teammate, I'd be furious about the idea of having to defend him and spill my own blood -- that was my role as an enforcer -- because of situations created by his immaturity and lack of regard for his fellow players.

*********

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Paul-Stewart/Lucic-Is-A-Fraudulent-Tough-Guy/196/60086

I'm guessing Paul Stewart isn't a Lucic fan.

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Odd. Canucks Franchise Player

Odd.

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However, I'm not entirely buying that the hit was the reason why he went after Couture.

I'm thinking it's something that Couture said as soon as he got hit.

Couture really pisses me off though.

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