Monday, November 10, 2008

Hitting It Greek Style

Might as well post the hit of Mike Van Ryn by Tom Kostopolous so you guys can argue if it was dirty, how dirty it was, etc., before the suspension comes down. Prediction on how many games? I say three. But I do think Van Ryn turned just a bit at the last minute. But it was still nasty. Yes, I'm waffling. mmm, waffles.

UPDATE - just to make it official, he did in fact get three games. I'm like Kreskin!

78 comments:

Anonymous said...

Huge waffle 29. That was a very dirty hit and 3 games sounds just about right for what the Wheel of Justice will land on. It should be much much longer but God forbid the NHL back up it's tough talk with action.

p.s. turn? Kostopolous is going in dirty all the way.

p.p.s. before an angry commenter brings up Hollweg's hit on Pietrangelo or any other dirty hit by the Leafs, yes, I spoke out against those hits.

Anonymous said...

Poor Van Cryn. He shouldn't have turned the other way at the last moment. Stupid fuck. You can clearly see at the 0:03 mark that Van Cryn looks back at Greek Lightning. He knew he was coming down on him. He got what his little vagin deserved.

Anyway, I call it an eye for an eye after the TWO high-sticks in Game 1 that weren't called. I hope every single time Van Cryn goes in the corner, he gets a little shiver down his Van Spine.

Anonymous said...

Is that a serious reply or just an impression of a blinkered Habs fan?

Kostopolous puts his forearm across his nameplate and drives him face first into the boards. He goes into the hit trying to injure him the entire way.

No one's telling you that you're a bad fan for admitting that a player on your team made a horrific hit. You're allowed to show intelligence in your fandom ;)

Anonymous said...

I stand by my words. Van Cryn flip- flopped at the very last possible moment, and he paid the price. I calls 'em as I see's 'em. You clowns got Game 2. I'm pretty confident Game 3 won't be the same.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and it's not like Coliacovo wouldn't have tried the same thing. The only difference between those plays is that Kostopoulos actually connected, where L'il Carly would have sailed OVER, injured himself AGAIN, and we'd all still be laughing at him.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I don't see what's up for debate here. These hits into the boards are scary as fuck, and just 'cause the guy on the receiving end is wearing blue&white doesn't make it right, or even less scary.

That hit's dirty. It sucks, 'cause TK comes across as a good guy (his broken interviews last season on RDS were awesome) but the only thing I see watching that hit is full-on contact across the back, driving Van Ryn directly into the boards. TK could've come in a little more from the side and shouldered his way to the puck instead, no?

I agree three games sounds about right.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

Mr. Fabulous,

Stay classy, you dumb fuck.

Anonymous said...

Awesome. I wouldn't have expected anything less stereotypical coming from a douche who calls himself eyebleaf. Keep 'em coming. It wasn't a dirty hit. If the roles were reversed, and it was Coliacovo hitting Hamrlik, Leaf "fans" would feel the same way I do. If a guy turns at the last possible moment, sorry, he's toast, and he gets what he deserves.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

That's where you're wrong, you Fabulous fuck. It it were any Leaf, we would have agreed that it was a dirty hit and the guy deserves to be suspended. As PPP said, that's exactly what we did when Hollweg went around like the jackass he is looking for guys' heads.

A dirty hit is a dirty hit, regardless of what God damn sweaters are on the players' backs. That's the point. Think about it for a second.

No one is knocking Kostopoulous. By all accounts, he's a good, tough, hockey player. I thought he was fantastic in the playoffs last year and really won over a lot of fans. But he fucked up. It happens. It's hockey. Split second decisions.

But for you to come out and say it wasn't a dirty hit, and then stoop even lower and call him "Van Cryn" just shows your mental capacity.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

And you have the gall to rip my pseudonym "eyebleaf" when you call yourself "Mr. Fabulous"?

Well done. It's clear that you're a real fucking winner.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, l'il fella. The hit was clean. He turned at the last second. If anyone fucked up, it was Van Cryn. The League runs it's shit out of Toronto, so yeah, he'll get a suspension, no argument there, but like I said. the League is run out of Leaf country, so you can't expect anything less.

Oh, and you Leaf-Clowns can stop wit the "Yeah, we were down on Hollweg when he did his garbage" shit too, while your at it. Hollweg is a fringe player trying to make a name. Kostopulos is a hard working NHL'er. Hollweg makes a name for himself trying to kill guys on the ice. Kostopoulos hits guys when they need to be hit, and if ya turn around at the last second? Go fuck yeself, Van Cryn.

Anonymous said...

I mean, it IS typical Leaf fan behavior, crying and all, but come on. Sack up. Your guy made a mistake and paid for it. He'll be fine ain't month or so when you hamsters are mathematically eliminated from the postseason.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

Ah, the classic Montreal rant about the league running shit out of Toronto and "Leaf Country." Pathetic. Just pathetic.

It's ironic that you're telling us to "sack up" when you're the only idiot who thinks it wasn't a dirty hit. Keep telling yourself that, honey. Whatever makes you feel better.

Habsfan10 said...

The hit was dirty. Pointe final. Greek Lightning knew it as soon as he did it.

Mr Fabulous, you're an embarrassment.

moeman said...

Split second decision by Van Ryn, not so split second decision by KTops. Two games suspension, no more than that as Van Ryn made himself vulnerable and KTops doesn't have a history of running opponents.

Anonymous said...

I would call the hit over-enthusiastic. I don't think he intended to injure the Leaf player.

Still, it was a dangerous play so he should be suspended.

LittleFury said...

I love how, right after the hit, Kostopolous, turned and started shaking his gloves off with this "Oh shit, here we go." look on his face.

It was dirty and he knew it.

Anonymous said...

Nah, Van Cryn is an embarrassment, turning the way he did. Sorry, pal.

Arazi13 said...

I dont know why everyone is getting their cunt muscles all twisted up. It was Dirty, but only because that moron Van Ryn turned at the last second. It sucks but he needs 2-3 games suspension. No more than that because there was no intent.

While were on the subject of cunts, Grabovski is of the world class variety of Cunts. I wish that he went at it with little tits... It would have been glorious!!! (your my boy blue!!!)

Oh ya and i thought that CBC replacing cole with hughson was going to make things better. Still found it biased...

Anonymous said...

Please - if this wasn't toronto, the media coverage would be minimal. Leaf fans can turn a pimple into a life threatening event. Throw into the mix that it was a Habs game and the leaf nation whine factory goes into full production.

In the end, it was an unfortunate play - TK plays hard but not dirty

The jokers who ran the crease all night are the ones who should have paid a price - and grabs will get his soon enough.

Game 3 should be fun....

Anonymous said...

Game 3 is payback.

Anonymous said...

All of this BS coming out of Toronto from an organization that glorified Tie Domi. More hypocrisy from the center of the universe.

Next time, anything that resembles a maple leaf inside the blue paint is fair game.

fezworth said...

Ugh. Horrible flamebait thread. Can someone please mention Hitler and Godwin this thing, so we can move on?

Fuck it, I'll do it myself. Mr. Fabulous, I heard PPP in the lunch room saying that you were like the Nazis.

There. Godwinned. New post/thread please!

Anonymous said...

3 Things:

1 - Van Ryn turned around and looked to see that T.K. was coming. I won't blame this on him as others have (split-second reactions aren't always predictable, particularly when you know you're about to get crushed), but I will say that I'm sure Kostopoulos saw it and probably figured he'd never be silly enough to turn...


2 - If Van Ryn doesn't turn at the last second, we're all congratulating T.K. on a nice hit on the forecheck

3 - Kostopoulos stopped moving his feet at the top of the circles and coasts the rest of the way. Can't really let up any more than that when your job is to go in and finish checks. He also uses his forearms, but keeps them low. If he had hit him how he had planned (without the last-second turn), it's a squeaky clean check.


So all in all I don't think it was a dirty hit in the sense that Kostopoulos was trying to hit Van Ryn into the boards from behind, but as it was the result he should probably be suspended for 1-3 games so that the message around the league is clear.

Still, this sucks plain and simple. Even we Habs fans take no pleasure in seeing a play go wrong like this and a good guy go down. I know that every husband, wife, child, and household pet in Quebec would be at the gates of Toronto with pitchforks and flaming bags of shit to hurl if this happened to any one of our players and that it's hard to look at this situation without having a little bias. Still, the leafs fan I was watching the game with on Saturday night agreed with me.

Anonymous said...

I calls it like I see's it, friend. Why the hell are douche Leaf "Fans" coming to a Habs blog anyway? Anyway. The hit was clean.

HFF33 aka Panger said...

Enough is enough, if the NHL is serious about protecting players it's got to get it though the players heads that you can't hit a guy when he's vulnerable. Maybe Van Ryn saw him, maybe not, but you can't tell me Greek Lightning didn't know the liekly consequences of driving him into the boards in that situation - just like Sauer's hit on Big Tits or Hollweg's on Pieterangelo, or pick any Flyers suspension from last year. I'm tired on players being attachked for "not protecting themselves" - have these guys seem how fast things happen on the ice? Both players have a responsibility in that situation, especially the one causing the injury.

Young HF29 said...

OK everyone, I HATE to moderate, but things are getting ugly in here. Make a point about the hit or not, that's you right. Stop fucking insulting other people , Leafs fans or not. Leafs fans are just fine, and they are welcome here any time, and always have been.

everyone go comment on the new Shatner post (thx fezworth) or be at least resepctful of each other, or I will shut down comments for this post if I have to. and that would fucking kill me, so don't make me.

Anonymous said...

i can't beliveve we don't play these blue fucks aggain till january. i can't wait till january.

oh and the hit deserves 3-5 games. Tk didn't mean to break his finger, nose, knock out some teeth and give him a concussion... but he did go in there trying to hurt him.

Anonymous said...

habsfan29... I know it's your site and all, but you shouldn't have the "think before you post. or don't. we don't give a fuck." quip atop the comment box if you're gonna tell people to knock it off.

I'll give up on this one, but I thought we were allowed to say whatever we wanted.

Young HF29 said...

@ Mr Fabulous - ur right , I dont give a fuck what you write and you CAN write anything you want. and frankly, it was an empty threat i would never shut down comments (barring some racist, homophobic type of crap).

but when you say shit like "Why the hell are douche Leaf "Fans" coming to a Habs blog anyway?", you are talking about some of our most loyal, long-term readers (PPP and eyebleaf) who deserve not to be shit on for that. you can shit on them all you want for being Leafs fans, but not for hanging out here, just like they don't shit on me for hanging out on their blogs

mr. gillis said...

mr fabulous... go home.
you just got shutup by a fellow habs fan that hates the leafs with a passion.

Anonymous said...

Damn, you got me Gillis. You got me.

Fact remains, twas a clean hit.

mr. gillis said...

twas?
is this like a christmas song or something?

In my opinion, i thought that it was all Van Ryn's fault.

But if anybody ever gets a head injury, you cant consider a good hit. its a bad hit.

Saying its a clean hit makes it sound like you want to see this happen more often.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

I'm with James, that was a pretty awesome smack down by HabsFan29 on "Mr. Fabulous."

I find it amusing to see Mr. Fabulous just keep going, and going, and going, and going.

All in all, it's great to see the Leafs/Habs rivalry get a little more intense. This is what it's all about. This is what we enjoy - our teams going at each other. This, Mr. Fabulous, is why we read each other's blogs. It's a shame you can't understand that. You're lucky the team you support has some intelligent fans like the guys who run this joint.

Anonymous said...

Wish I could say the same about you guys and your "team".

I go and go and go because this is what being a fan is all about. I have my opinion, you have yours (as useless as it is) and that's that.

Now to clarify on something here, NO I don't want to see more hits like this. NO I DON'T want to see guys get hurt. Only a fucking idiot would want to see that. What I DO want is for pussies to stop attacking guys for following up on a clean check. If Tom raised his forearms (that's the part of the body between your wrists and your elbows, if you're having a tough time keeping up here) and he didn't leave his feet. Mike Van Ryn got hurt because he's fucked up JUST AS MUCH as anyone else in that predicament. Turning your back on a guy bearing down on you is just as stupid as as cheering for the Leafs.

mr. gillis said...

eyebleaf: he reminds of the energizer bunny, keeps going and going, but imagine instead of a drum that the bunnies hitting, its his nuts, and he keeps goin and goin not realizing that hes only hurting himself


mr fabulous: its not CLEAN if somebody gets hurt. a clean hit is when its shoulder to shoulder, no injury involved. of course you dont want anyone to get hurt, or else youd be a sick fuck, but your saying that a guy getting a concussion, a broken nose and a broken finger on one hit is considered a clean hit. i think that its not TK's fault at all, but what Van Ryn did made the hit ugly as fuck (therefore not clean)

Anonymous said...

Kid, if I'm getting you correctly, you're basically telling me that if a guy gets injured from a bodycheck, it's "unclean"?

Good lord! I seriously need to get my hockey shit straight.

The last time I checked, a guy hitting another guy is called "part of the game". If a guy gets injured because of his own stupidity, it's dirty hockey.

Fucked up or not, Kostopoulos didn't throw a dirty hit at Van Cryn (yeah, I'm going back to calling him that). Van Cryn is the one at fault. If he took the check like a MAN... A MAN... we wouldn't be having this argument. We'd be making fun of the Habs completely mailing that performance in.

Hit was clean.

Anonymous said...

@ gillis:

In this particular case, yeah Kostopoulos should bear some responsibility for having injured him, but there have been many instances where players have been injured on clean hits. The point is not whether or not he got hurt, but how he got hurt.

For instance, if T.K. had somehow pulled up and he still caught him while turning him around, he could have caused little to no damage to Van Ryn's health and the play probably wouldn't have been penalized. However, he did not, and so he went to finish his check and the combination of that plus Van Ryn's last-second turn resulted in the play you saw and consequently the injury.

Don't think there was any intent to injure there and I think that'll help Kostopoulos' case as well as the fact that he's got no track record of being a dirty player. However, he's ultimately responsible for his actions in the same way, for example, that a player is responsible for his stick at all times. Just as when a player unintentionally high sticks another during a play or whatever and is penalized, this, too, should be penalized (as it was) and further discipline should come down from the league to remind players they are accountable for their actions, accident or no accident.

mr. gillis said...

whatever,
opinions are opinions, you can go ahead thinking that those hits should be part of the game.

lets call it a day

Anonymous said...

Kostopulos cut the stride down. Didn't charge or anything. Floated in and WHAMO. Aside from being a miracle on skates and stopping on a dime, I can't see how it could have been avoided.

Anonymous said...

And l'il Gillis...

I have said over and over I don't want to see hits like this, where a guy is left in a puddle of his shit n' piss, but you don't go and say that Kostopoulos did it on purpose. It was a clean hit that went wrong because of the hitee, not the hitter.

Dave said...

"he reminds of the energizer bunny, keeps going and going, but imagine instead of a drum that the bunnies hitting, its his nuts, and he keeps goin and goin not realizing that hes only hurting himself"

that's employee-of-the-month good.

mr. gillis said...

@cvenasty,

i agree with you completly
but to do with what fabulous said, is it clean? no. if a guy checks someone and gets his stick up in his by accident, you cant call it a clean check. samething applies

mr. gillis said...

thanks HF4

and fabulous, not once did i say that kostopoulos did this on purpose.

mr. gillis said...

hey and enough with the lil thing. not cool. why the fuck should it matter how old i am

Anonymous said...

This clip is better, as they show a slow-motion replay of it at about the 1:12 mark.

The thing with the hit is this: At no point is Van Ryan ever facing or side on to Kostopolous. Kostopolous sees Van Ryan's name the whole time. The turn at the end? He was still back on before that.

Dirty hit.

As for suspension, it depends on how long Van Ryan is out for. Soud like about six weeks, since he has a concussion, broken hand and needed dental surgery. I say Kostopolous gets three games, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was five to ten.

Anonymous said...

Oops, I forgot to give the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYC3KRFgazA

Senators Lost Cojones said...

Gee, all this love makes my special places all tingly...

As someone who has nary a dog in this fight, it was a "dirty" hit, insofar as it was from behind, absolutely warranting 3 games at the least. That said, I was a bit surprised to see it from Greek Lightning and I wouldn't expect to see it very often, if at all. In short...he will go to his room. And he will feel shame. End of story.

p.s.: Might want to think about flipping that "moderate comments" button for a little bit, there HF29. Yikes!

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

Three games. Keep defending him, Fabulous.

And...GO!

Ian Vitro said...

15 say it's a dirty hit, and most of us are Habs fans. So does the NHL. Only Mr. Fabulous has it as "clean." Despite your oh-so-obvious fabulous-ness, class and eloquence, you may have to accept being wrong this time, MF.

What I'm still enraged about is the boarding penalty to Markov in the 3rd. Why the hell was that boarding?

Young HF29 said...

If anything good comes from this, it's that we all can see I have mad prediction skillz

I like Kosto's staement. He feels bad. It's all good!

Anonymous said...

Guys cut Mr. Fabulous some slack....the FHF clique can be unforgiving at times.

As for "moderation" give me a break - when it suits you perhaps but given the content on this site, any censorship is laughable at best.

You may tell us eyebleaf is an OK guy but the rest of his Leaf Nation brethren are assholes - ask any Hab fans living in the GTA.

I'll stick up for an emotional Habs fan anyday of the week.

There, you can start taking your pot shots at me now...

mr. gillis said...

the league has spoken

---game over---

Young HF29 said...

@habernac - im not moderating anything, trust me. and I had no problem with anything Mr Fab said, he can say what he wants, until he fracks on people for coming to this site. that was the only thing that bothered me, as you can tell by this, which I thought was pretty clear:

you can shit on them all you want for being Leafs fans, but not for hanging out here

fezworth said...

@29: You just used the work "Frack", and made my day. Yay!

Anonymous said...

HF29 - you're right, I overlooked your point.

On to the Sens...

Anonymous said...

Echhh. Three games. Well, there goes my argument.

I DO wonder, if Van Ryn didn't get injured on the play, if the suspension would be as harsh, if at all...

Bryan Driscoll said...

holy christ. i can't believe i read all this nonsense. i don't have much to say, but for what it's worth i agree with everything cvennasty said.

Young HF29 said...

@Mr. Fabulous - I'm not so sure, you may be vindicated somewhat. Read Colin Campbell and Mike Murphy's comments in the NHL.com story and it seems like the simple fact Van Ryn was injured was the big problem, not necessarily the hit itself.

mr. gillis said...

does that mean i win?

Young HF29 said...

@gillis - i think we all lose

so, how about that sucky PP? do we have goalie issues? what happened to those Gaborik rumours?

mr. gillis said...

minny wanted higgins and mcdonut so gainey bailed
i heard about halak to NJ for paul martin (not the former pm)

Anonymous said...

I'd give Higgins and Halak for a top 3 Defenseman at this point (but that's if you over-exaggerated their net worth). No one wants Latendresse, Begin or Dandenault, and the rest of the crew are performing. Except as a team, we're not. A shake up's needed. Maybe not right now, but I'd say if we're still asking these same questions by the end of December, I'm going to start worrying.

Anonymous said...

Guys cut Mr. Fabulous some slack....the FHF clique can be unforgiving at times.

Unforgiving towards stupidity? Sure. It's one of their best qualities.

As for "moderation" give me a break - when it suits you perhaps but given the content on this site, any censorship is laughable at best.

This might be beyond you but this is the FHF's site. If they decide to moderate comments based on the lack of iambic pentameter. If you don't like it go hang out with your brothers-in-intellect at Habs Blog

You may tell us eyebleaf is an OK guy but the rest of his Leaf Nation brethren are assholes - ask any Hab fans living in the GTA.

Sure and I'll use Mr. Fabulous as proof that all Habs fans are idiots. Makes tonnes of sense.

I'll stick up for an emotional Habs fan anyday of the week.

Yeah, why let being right or wrong get in the way?

mr. gillis said...

ouch PPP

Number31 said...

One thing, at least Kostopoulos outright appologized in the quietest I've ever seen him speak, looking absolutely haggard and shocked in the locker room. (Also looks rather unhappy on the ice before he got jumped). Half these guys take the responsibility to even say "sorry". I heard nary a sound from Sauer after he pasted Kostitsyn's head into the glass on a non-call boarding. I think all I heard was "keep your head up". Or was that Dough Weight after he caught Sutter's head after he suddenly lunged down before being smacked. Definitely wasn't Kopecy after he knocked Mathieu Carle outcold in preseason on a routine linechange dump-in that was going to be retrieved by his teammates anyway.

The 3 games are fine. (Jones got 2 when he ousted Bergeron for the year to half this outrage). I think Carbo would have scratched him either way.

Anonymous said...

Three games is right. Having watched Kostopolus play and hearing him afterwards I believe that it wasn't intentional. It was still a hit from behind, though. Van Ryn did seem to turn ever so slightly at the last second, but Kostopolus should have avoided the collision more. I'm never one for blame the victim, but it does mitigate the suspension.

The only thing that's really bothering me from all this is the media's reaction. I'd expect outrage on the part of Leaf fans, just like us Hab fans would be too. But I think I've seen that hit more times than I saw the second plane hit on Sep 12. And I don't even live in North America!

Right after Hollweg's 3rd hit the discussion seemed to focus on whether the injured should hold some responsibility. Now it seems like we should all be getting our pitchforks out and running up the hill to Habs Castle. It was a bad hit, he got what he deserved, let's move on. If we want to talk about giving out more games for these hits that's fine. But let's be consistant.

In the end, of course we all hope Van Ryn makes a speedy recovery and feels better soon.

Anonymous said...

Okay, here's my take on it:

The hit was Kosto's fault entirely, BUT! Even though players aren't ALLOWED to hit guys from behind doesn't mean you should ever put yourself in dangerous positions like this.

Just because the light tells you it's your turn to cross the street on foot doesn't mean there won't be a car coming in from the side. So you should always look both ways before crossing.

By that i mean there are certain situations in hockey that are very dangerous and you should not put yourself in them despite the fact the other players aren't supposed to hit you in them.

It's still Kosto's fault for hitting Van Ryn, but Van Ryn was being plain dumb for not being careful.

capebretoncanadien said...

Tommy K gets three games....VanRyn gets a lot more time on the sidelines than that.

It was a stupid play by both players IMO but more so on Assopopoliseseses (sic?) part.

The glove does seem to fit.

Hopefully it allows a young guy to get in the lineup for a few .....probably just means we'll be in for a hefty dose of Begin...sigh.

Anonymous said...

I'm impressed with Pension Plan Puppets use of the thesaurus. Bravo, son. You dun good! keep cheering them Leafs, pal.

RĂ©daction said...

I dont think mr. Fab had many friends in school... Dirty hit, well deserved suspension.

Mr. Fabulous said...

@Montréaliste1

Just how old WERE you when you realized you were attracted to penis?

Anyway. If that hit were in Columbus on a Tuesday night, between the Canadiens and Blowjackets, I doubt there would have been a suspension.

RĂ©daction said...

Right... You're still in high school. Very mature homophobic insult. Aren't you tired of getting dissed?

Mr. Fabulous said...

Nothing homophobic about it.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

Keep digging that hole, Mr. Fabulous. You're amazing.

Mr. Fabulous said...

Sure. I'm happy you're happy. Then again, it doesn't really take all that much for a Leaf follower. Keep cheering for your losers.

mr. gillis said...

haha, the energizer bunny is still goin

Anonymous said...

You're all the retarded fish for falling for the bait. Move on. all of you.