Chris Pronger should be fired into the sun
Last night, buried deep within the writeup of the Anaheim-Detroit game last night, I talked a little bit about the dirty hit Chris Pronger put on Pavel Datsyuk. Here’s the video of the hit.
For all the people that bitched at me via e-mail about my stance on the Weight hit on Sutter, this is what I consider to cross the line. That’s a dirty hit. Look where the puck is in relation to the collision, look how Datsyuk can’t even fathom that someone would come in on him at all, let alone come in high. But this is typical Chris Pronger, trying to gain an edge by taking a run at a team’s star player. And as is typical of the NHL, the officials looked the other way because, hey, it’s Chris Pronger and he plays physical hockey.
I agree with Jordin Tootoo, who did an interview with Wyshinski on the issue. “Hitting’s part of the game. It’s a man’s game. You gotta keep your head up there.” Absolutely. Perfectly put.
The point is also made that Pronger is a full 6-foot-6 and thus most of his hits are to the head, which is true enough. But there’s no excuse for this hit at all. It’s not part of the game, it’s part of Chris Pronger’s desire to drill every opponent’s top forward any time he can. The fact that he didn’t get penalized in the game isn’t surprising, nor will it be surprising when the league doesn’t do a thing about this.
But with a history like Pronger’s, the league has to do a better job of supervising him. The reason this is a special case is that Chris Pronger is a special kind of scumbag.
October 30th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Just because a player is “larger” than others doesnt mean he isnt allowed to hit. This isnt the NFL where they “protect” special players and let the 2nd class players get hit. This is HOCKEY. and in HOCKEY everyone is the same. if you cant take the hit you dont play HOCKEY you play pick up sticks or chess.
Gretzky took his lumps. And if a team doesnt want their star to take a CLEAN/LEGAL hit, then they put an enforcer on the ice to keep that from happening. You cant crucify a man just because he is a hard hitter. He plays the game the way its supposed to be played.
By the way hockey has always been much rougher than it has been in the Bettman era. Go back into the recent past and you will see hits/fights that maket his look small in comparison.
Hockey players dont get into the big show and not expect to take hits or play soft. Your views are consistent with European hockey. Perhaps that would be more your speed?
October 30th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
I have to agree with the comment about Chris Pronger being a “scumbag”, because of all the dirty hits he gets away with. Him and Getzlaf from the Ducks are the worst dirty players in the entire NHL. Neither have any talent to do anything else….In my mind, they are both total scumbags!!!!!
October 31st, 2008 at 1:03 am
i was at the game and saw the hit on youtube many times and not once did i see pronger raise his elbow off the side off his body in a motion to hit datsyuk in the face(until after the hit), also look at the where datsyuk has his head… i agree pronger can play dirty and when you stomp on someone with your skate you need to fired to the sun. But this time i totally disagree!!!! i also do not think pronger made any move to go straight at datsyuk.. he wasnt even looking in my opinion
Earlier in the game perry took a dirty elbow to the head while against the wall. the ducks got a 2 minute PP but no one is complaining about that. I dont remember the name of the detroit player but he is shorter than Perry(think about it!!!)
And for getz being a dirty player i disagree… he is just one of the most powerful players in the game!!!and if he throws you around like a ragdoll, get stronger and reverse the role!!!
October 31st, 2008 at 1:53 am
Well if you look where the puck is, the top of the screen along the boards, and you look where Pavel is, the center of the ice, why is pronger stepping in there to begin with? i would say the very least with that is an interference call. But in typical piece of crap pronger fashion he is head hunting. pronger saw Pavel, how could you not, and you can see him lean into the hit right when he is making contact with Pavel’s head. Another intent to injure is what it really looks like to me. He should be fined and suspended, especially with a history like his. One of the dirtiest players in the game right now.
However i do agree with C3, hockey is a rough sport, but you do have to protect the players, they should be allowed to hit, but hits to the head are not needed, especially when the player isnt even near the puck. players like Kronwall, Phenauf, those type of players hit people correctly and they are fun to watch, pronger is just out to hurt people and that isnt part of the game.
October 31st, 2008 at 2:28 am
Pronger is trash. Get rid of him. He needs another Lidstrom slapshot to the chest to keep him in line for the final few years of his career.
October 31st, 2008 at 9:46 am
He didn’t raise his elbow….it’s a clean check. Get a rule book.
October 31st, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Clean check? It was interference. Should have been a penalty.
October 31st, 2008 at 1:26 pm
i have no problem with the timing of pronger’s hit, but why not just take the body? imo he made a deliberate attempt to make contact with pavel’s head.
October 31st, 2008 at 5:04 pm
It was a dirty hit thrown by a d-bag with a penchant for dirty hits. Not only was it interference (as noted) - but he throws his elbow up at the end of it (like he timed the elbow too late). In addition to putting Datsyuk in danger, he endangers his own teammate by almost catching him in the head with his stick to accomplish the hit.
I’m all for aggressive, rough play (and I’ve doled out plenty myself) but it’s the NHL, not MMA. Chris Pronger SHOULD be fired into the sun.
Submitted for your approval:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bJXgDCbICM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6znC9BnUK8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt5rBWarx6A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvDxB3hdq3A
October 31st, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Getzlaf has no talent at anything else? Seriously? He’s an incredible offensive talent.
I find the Weight hit to be much worse than this thing. That hit on Sutter was predatory.
November 3rd, 2008 at 12:14 pm
The Weight hit was worse? Really? I don’t see that this one is particularly bad (other than the fact that because of the puck positioning it probably should have been called for interference), it looks pretty borderline to me. The Weight hit was purely incidental, I can’t see how you could possibly conceive of it being predatory (unless you are a Canes fan with an axe to grind).
August 20th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
[...] a lot of talk about a hit Chris Pronger put on Pavel Datsyuk during Wednesday’s game. Check out The Two-Line Pass.Now, I haven’t seen a replay of the hit (the computer I’m currently working on won’t allow me [...]