Tomas Kopecky welcomes Mathieu Carle to the NHL. Dirty? Not a chance.
You’re probably going to hear a lot tomorrow about the hit Detroit’s Tomas Kopecky laid on Montreal defenseman Mathieu Carle (not to be confused with Tampa’s Matt Carle, though they play the same position. Someone pass that info to the Detroit color commentator).
Just five minutes into the Habs’ exhibition game, Carle carried the puck through the neutral zone down the right wing, dumped the puck in and less than a second later got demolished by a totally clean hit from Kopecky that he never saw coming. He was knocked unconcious and came back around about 15 minutes later while they were still working on him on the ice. He was taken off on a stretcher and brought to a Detroit hospital for further testing.
Watch the video for yourselves.
Some (namely Habs fans) will find the hit to be egregiously dirty. Others (namely objective observers who understand the sport) will say that it was perfectly clean, and that’s why players are taught to keep their friggin’ heads up in the neutral zone.
Anything that’s made of this is a total non-story. Even if the term “headhunting” is thrown around, it’s crazy talk. Don’t wanna get drilled, don’t put your head down. It’s that simple. Really.
Later in the game, Nicklas Lidstrom took a puck in the face and was also brought to the hospital. Yeesh. That could be bad, bad news for Detroit.
September 25th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Pretty obviously a young kid mistake- he was locked in on the dump-in and just got clipped. The hit didn’t look bad at all, maybe a little high, but not unreasonable, and not even that hard. habs fans will no doubt claim that it is anti-quebecois bias in the NHL.
Lidstrom broke his nose, got some stitches and won’t miss more than a game or two.
September 25th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Totally just a rookie mistake, it’s the kind of play he’s likely done a million times in the Q, but that’s just not gonna fly now. Not a dirty hit at all, definitely a hard hit and the Habs player’s were probably justified in starting the scrum afterwards.
Hell, even Carbo thought it was clean (after the benefit of slow motion replay)
September 25th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
The kid has promise and if he can learn from this, he’ll be better off.
It does suck that, once again, in his first game of the pre-season he gets knocked the fuck out. That’s playing with your head down for ya.
And for the record, I am Quebecois Habs fan and that hit was perfectly legal.
September 25th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I get Matt Carle and Mathieu Carle mixed up. Which one is nicknamed “hot”?
September 25th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
I haven’t heard anyone complain about this hit at work or anywhere else. Who found it egregiously dirty? HFboards posters?
October 6th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
I’m a Mtl fan and I didn’t find it dirty. Please refrain from assuming that because you’re used to crying and whining over legal hits that the fans of the victim would do the same. You must remember that in Mtl, we were champions of the world before you even knew what skates were. NO ONE called it egregiously dirty…except you. Food for thought, mate.
December 26th, 2008 at 12:54 am
The initial post here is what ticks me off… I’d almost call it an anti-hab fan bias hahaha….seriously though, as the response here clearly shows, it was out of line to ‘objectively’ call out all habs fans while standing on a self-assigned pedestal of objectivity. My dear dear friend, TwoLinePass, it is you who deserves a suspension, not Kopecky.