McLennan suspended for 5 games
Calgary Flames backup goaltender Jamie McLennan has been suspended for five games by the NHL according to sources at TSN. McLennan had slashed Red Wings’ Johan Franzen a couple times in the leg and was consequently called for a penalty. During stoppage in play, McLennan proceeded to whack his goalie stick into Franzen’s stomach. Fortunately, Franzen just lost his breath and will play tonight.
As Franzen had said, it didn’t really matter how many games McLennan was going to be suspended for because he certainly wasn’t going to play anymore unless Kipper got injured. Had Franzen been injured by that slash, I bet the suspension would have been greater.
According to the NBC broadcast, Flames’ head coach Playfair has been given a $25,000 fine and the Flames organization has been fined $100,000. It’s not that $125,000 will make a difference financially to those involved, but at least it sends some sort of a message (even a weak one) that the play Calgary displayed late in the game yesterday was not acceptable and will not be tolerated by the NHL.
According to the same TSN article, Wings’ defenseman Brett Lebda will not be playing tonight.
Lebda will not play tonight for Detroit because of an injury. Lebda is said to be suffering “headaches.”
His “headaches” resulted from a suckerpunch from Langkow. I’m still hoping that the NHL suspends Langkow for one game especially since he wasn’t even given a penalty for that dirty play during the game. Say all you want about Lebda’s low hipcheck, punching someone in the face while he’s on the ice injured is not the appropriate way to retaliate. If he is not fined or suspended, I will be really disappointed by the league and I hope Big Bert (Bertuzzi) steps up for his teammate and challenges him to a fight (a fair fight - nothing dirty).
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7 Responses to “McLennan suspended for 5 games”
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April 22nd, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Detroit Got what they deserved! End of story.
The NHL has a serious problem in that they DO NOT protect the goalies at all. The worst penalty anyone gets for crashing the net is two minutes for goaltender interference. Detroit has taken continually taken advantage of the situation as they intentionally keep trying to take kipper out.
What the Flames did to Detroit was to say if the Corporate NHL won’t protect our goalie … WE WILL
For all of those wining about the situation Detroit found themselves in … the Flames didn’t pick the fight but they will finish it!
April 22nd, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Detroit has always played a thug game, and now they have the gall to whine about a team stepping up and playing the same level?
I agree that McLennan’s slash has no place in hockey, but Detroit continually interferes with Kipper with no calls. I feel it’s the refs’ fault for allowing it to get that far. It was only amatter of time before something happened.
As far as Langkow’s sucker punch - Lebda got what he deserved - he was INTENTIONALLY trying to hurt Langkow. That’s the only reason to clip a player at the knees like that.
And we all know that Bertuzzi isn’t capable of a “fair” fight - he’s only a good enforcer if he’s attacking someone from behind, just ask Moore or Messier.
April 22nd, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Sean & Dave- I’m not going to argue with you because we are all obviously entitled to our own opinion and definitely come from different sides of the issue. I will address a couple points that you both mentioned so that you get a response back from me. I do appreciate you leaving comments on BTJ.
I realize that I am coming from a Detroit fan perspective, but the goaltender interference from the Wings have been minimal in the sense that it’s been purely Wings players’ faults. Yes, there were numerous times that a Wings player made contact with Kipper. But most of those were a result of another Flames player making contact with a Wing and causing that contact. Both teams have had instances where their own players (incidentally or not) “pushed” an opponent in their own goaltender. Obviously, no one wants to see a goaltender messed with because it’s your goalie.
Detroit is not known as a thug team. Look at our roster, aside from Bertuzzi, we’re a smaller and less physical team. Going into this series, most people thought Calgary would come out on top because Detroit has been the less physical team consistently over the past couple of playoffs. I’ve been pleasantly surprised this round that the Wings are being more physical because that doesn’t usually happen.
Whether or not you feel Lebda purposefully hit the low to injure Langkow, he should not have responded in that manner. I’m happy that Langkow was not injured and was able to play the rest of the game. However, I feel it was completely wrong for him to suckerpunch Lebda and give him a concussion. There are more appropriate ways to retaliate.
Yes, Bertuzzi had his dirty play in Vancouver. I’m not even going to try to defend him because it was completely and totally dirty. And yes, the Wings did sign him. However, he has not done anything dirty this playoff series. He is capable of a fair fight and that’s what I would like to see him do to stand up for our team and show we can’t be pushed around. I would never want him to do something dirty like he did once in Vancouver. But if he drops the gloves and challenges Langkow face-to-face, I’d be completely happy with that.
Thanks again for your comments. While I may disagree, it’s always good to hear an opposing view and generate some discussion on BTJ.
April 22nd, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Detroit plays a thug game? What are you dopes smoking?
“the Flames didn’t pick the fight”
What?! Did you even watch the game? Wow.
“Detroit Got what they deserved! End of story.
The NHL has a serious problem in that they DO NOT protect the goalies at all. The worst penalty anyone gets for crashing the net is two minutes for goaltender interference. Detroit has taken continually taken advantage of the situation as they intentionally keep trying to take kipper out.”
Wow. You are off the deep end. The only time a Wing has touched Kiprusoff is when they’ve been checked into him. Going hard to the net is how you play hockey. If you think the goalies can’t handle it, maybe you should jump on YouTube and watch some 70s and 80s hockey for a while. And if a goalie really can’t handle it, then he can buy a skirt and go skate in the park.
“Lebda got what he deserved - he was INTENTIONALLY trying to hurt Langkow”
That’s a load of crap and you know it. Hip checks are clean checks. The clipping call was weak, and wouldn’t have even been made if Langkow didn’t do the pu$$y move of acting like he was hurt.
April 22nd, 2007 at 5:33 pm
I have to go back to this “Detroit plays a thug game” comment. Detroit had 957 penalty minutes in the regular season, no player suspensions, and the least number of fighting majors (11). Calgary had 1195 penalty minutes, a couple suspensions (that I know of), and 35 fighting majors. But yeah, Detroit are the thugs. Hilarious that everybody has been calling them soft all year (and for a number of years, actually) but now all of a sudden they’re thugs.
April 22nd, 2007 at 6:16 pm
… so aside from the arguing …
I’m sure most people probably consider a $125,000 total fine to a team and coach pretty small in the grand scheme of money in a professional sports league. But what I wonder is when you compare a team’s average revenue in the NHL to a team’s average revenue in, say … the NFL, would the fine sound more on par?
If that question makes sense, that is.
April 23rd, 2007 at 8:17 pm
I have to give you all credit. While we may disagree on a few points, this is the first forum that I’ve seen Red Wings fans (and a lot of other teams’ fans for that matter) not reduce a discussion to name calling and cursing - Kudos to a well run site!
I also want to restate something. IMHO Lebda made a cheap and dirty hit, and I understand Langkow’s response. That doesn’t mean I agree with it. It was not a “clean Hip check” he virtually dropped to all four in an attempt to take out Langkow’s knees. Again though, Langkow’s sucker punch wasn’t appropriate either - I feel that Lebda should have received a major penalty, same withLangkow - I was actually surprised there was no penalty to Langkow.
However, “The clipping call was weak, and wouldn’t have even been made if Langkow didn’t do the pu$$y move of acting like he was hurt.” - Have you taken a hit from a 200+ pound object moving at high speed to the knees? I’m thinking there’s little acting there.
“Wow. You are off the deep end. The only time a Wing has touched Kiprusoff is when they’ve been checked into him.”
There were definitely times that a player was checked into Kipper, but a lot seemed to be embellished falls. While this may have been “normal in the 70s & 80s”, we’re supposed to be passed that. The interference does happen on both sides, and my point is I feel that the goalies aren’t protected enough. I know it’s an effort to promote more scoring, but it tends to lead to heated responses like Mclennan’s. Again - not that I condone his response.
Although last night’s game was another story, there was at least once Kipper had his head stepped on, and at one point was flat out tackled by Zetterman - AFTER the puck had been stopped. Zetterman took a flying leap at Kipper. You can’t tell me that was an “accident”.
As far as the thuggery, well we’ll have to agree to disagree. I actually started to respect The Wings a little (albeit grudgingly ;)) until they signed Bertuzzi. That man has no business on the ice, but that’s another discussion completely.
Once again, it’s a pleasure to see an intelligently run hockey site!