Mmmm... Downie

Remember our buddy Tim Clownboy of the Hurricanes, err, River Rats? Check out what he's been up to, via Canes Country:

"The AHL should be looking into a suspension for Albany River Rats captain Tim Conboy, who was assessed a fighting major, instigation and unsportsmanlike minors, a game misconduct for instigating and a game misconduct for "persisting in a fight," following a high-sticking incident and fight with Steve Downie during the Phantoms' 3-0 win Saturday afternoon.

"I’ve never heard of [persisting] in a fight before," said Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren. "The report I got was that [Conboy] bit Downie on the hand. He had blood and teeth marks on his hand."

Here's the video (dude's a friggin' maniac):

The NHL's Stick-y Situation

As we wait to see how many games Philly's Jesse Boulerice will be forced to miss after cross-checking Canucks forward Ryan Kesler across the jaw last night, we can't help but by reminded of some of hockey's more infamous stick-related incidents. Below are some of the worst of the worst and the punishment the League doled out (or didn't) in response.

Honorable mention: Dino Ciccarelli on Luke Richardson, Brad May on Steve Heinze and Tony Granato on Neil Wilkinson. Dino wasn't suspended for his two-hander, but was convicted of assault and sentenced to a day in prison, while Granato got 15 games for his hack and May got 20 for his. Why honorable mentions? Because I couldn't find individual clips of each incident (but all three can be seen here). Other notable incidents include Eddie Shore on Ace Bailey and Dave Brown on Tomas Sandstrom (both earned 15 game suspensions). Anyway, on to the YouTube-y goodness...

Ron Hextall on Kent Nilsson. Hextall got eight games for this Stanley Cup Finals slash.


Marty McSorley on Donald Brashear. McSorley was suspended for the remainder of the 1999-2000 season (which amounted to 23 games), for this whack whacking.


Chris Simon on Ryan Hollweg. For this thuggery, Simon was suspended for the remainder of the season (playoffs included) or 25 games, whichever was longer. The latter was, and Si makes his return to the NHL on Saturday night... against the Flyers.


Alexander Perezhogin on Garrett Stafford. To the minors for this hack, which earned Perezhogin an unprecedented season-long suspension from the AHL.


Which brings us to last night's Boulerice hit (recall that Boulerice was suspended from the OHL for a year for a stick-swinging incident). The NHL says they're serious about getting rid of stickwork like this and shots to the head of all kinds. I guess we'll wait and see how serious they are when they respond to this:

Another Week, Another Flyer Cheap Shot

In the wake of Flyer Steve Downie's suspension for a high hit on Ottawa's Dean McAmmond comes the below cheap shot from Philly's part-time tough/spare part Jesse Boulerice.

I'd expect a big suspension - into the double digits - and I think that it might even be in the upper teens as the League likes to make bigger examples of more expendable players (and given that it's the second straight Flyer to act up, maybe they want to send a message to the team as well, though I know this is something no one in the organization condones). And don't forget that ten years ago, Boulerice was suspended for an entire year by the OHL for a stick-related incident.

Anyway, take a look and play this round of "Guess the Suspension" in the comments (and before answering, I might suggest you check out one of my favorite blog posts ever, from Battle of Alberta on the reason(s) for suspensions).

Update: Boulerice gets 25 games.

BoA On The Principles Of Sentencing

Normally I don't devote a post to telling you what to go read - that's what the sidebar widget is for - but this post over at Battle of Alberta deserves a bit more of a prompt. If you're interested at all in theories of criminal justice and/or how sports leagues discipline their players, it's a must read.