As If You Needed Another Reason To Hate Pierre McGuire

If you don't have the NHL Network, I feel bad for you. Enviro had it a long time before I did and would constantly rub it in. When I finally made the switch to DirecTV, I got the NHL Network and I've been in heaven ever since. You see, during these dog days of summer where hockey is noticeably absent, the NHL Network has been replaying every single playoff game from the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals. Right now they are on the Detroit/Nashville series and I gotta say how great it is to watch them knowing they go down in defeat in just a few short rounds. I plan on recording every game of the Stanley Cup Finals to watch over and over again.

But getting back to my main point, I turned the NHL Network on today and watched a portion of a program called the Hodge Stove League which is an interview program hosted by Dave Hodge. King Douchebag himself, Pierre McGuire, happened to be on so I decided to watch to see if he said anything about the awesome leadership skills of Mike Richards or how the Detroit Red Wings are the greatest team ever assembled. What I ended up being treated to was far, far more retarded.

The subject of fighting in hockey came up, of which both Hodge and McGuire were in agreement that it is no longer a necessary part of the game. McGuire backed up his argument by saying he doesn't want to see another Don Sanderson and that the NHL lost a great young player at the beginning of the year so player safety should be at the forefront. Ok, let's look at his two points.

Don Sanderson, a 21-year-old player in Ontario’s Senior AAA amateur league, died on January 2, 2009 from injuries sustained during a hockey fight three weeks earlier. He was in a coma after his unprotected head struck the ice at the conclusion of a fight on December 12, 2008. While other players have died over the years by striking their head off the ice, Sanderson's was the first recorded fatality which was a direct result of a hockey fight. It was noted on TSN.ca:

“For the record, Sanderson was playing in a league where any fight carries with it an automatic ejection from the game. And he didn’t voluntarily take off his helmet; it came off in the course of the fight and the fatal injuries were caused when the two players fighting fell to the ice and Sanderson’s unprotected head hit the ice.”

So in a freak accident, a player unfortunately lost his life because several factors happened at the same time (losing his helmet, head hitting the ice). Not to make light of the situation, but back when I was trying to learn to skate I was at the local arena with a friend and we were the only two people on the ice. I lost my balance at center ice, fell, and smacked my head off of the ice. I remember the scoreboard above me getting blurry and it was scary. But I didn't die. I possibly could have, but it didn't happen. It might not have happened with this kid either 99% of the time, but this one time it did happen. And this is what McGuire's uses for his argument? He's talking about taking out fighting in the NHL because some kid in a senior league died, not because of the punches he received, but from losing his balance and hitting his head on the ice. Hmmmm....

Second point, a great young player destined for NHL greatness died at the beginning of the season. The player he was talking about was Alexei Cherepanov, who died on October 13, 2008 during a Kontinental Hockey League game in Russia when he collapsed on the bench after a shift from an apparent heart attack. After an autopsy it was revealed that he suffered from myocarditis, a condition where not enough blood gets to the heart, and that he should not have been playing professional hockey. Upon further investigation it was revealed "that for several months Alexei Cherepanov engaged in doping" which possibly lead to his death.

So McGuire brings up a kid in Russia who never played a game in the NHL and who died from a pre-existing condition which had nothing to do with fighting to win his argument that fighting should be banned in the NHL? Is it possible he becomes more retarded by the day?

I'm not going to go into a diatribe about why I think fighting should stay. It's the same argument that a lot of pro-fighting people have. But for you Penguins fans who are either on the fence or are anti-fighting, think about this: Where would we have been if Max Talbot doesn't fight Daniel Carcillo in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals? Do we lose that game which forces a Game 7? Do we lose that game and never win the Cup? Or even if we do win, does the feeling that they can overcome anything which propelled them to comeback against the mighty Red Wings ever manifest itself? All hypotheticals sure, but ones that are not without merit. The bottom line is Talbot's fight changed that game and the outcome of the series. That you cannot deny however you feel about fighting.

So Pierre, why don't you listen to the Superstar?