Saturday, October 11, 2008

Did Peca Make Contact With A Zebra?

During last nights game between the Columbus Blue Jackets and Dallas Stars, Mike Peca of the Jackets was standing in the slot covering Brendan Morrow as the Stars were giving pressure. Morrow allegedly slew footed Peca. seconds later Peca's on the ground and Morrows shoving the puck past Pascal Leclaire for a goal. Peca gets up and apparently made contact with a referee. He has been given a 10 game suspension....hardly deserved.

My Observation: From what I saw Peca was ticked off but all he did was grab the ref's arm. He does not deserve a 10 game suspension and im happy he has appealed it.

7 comments:

Dan said...

I've been wanting to ask someone for a long time; What exactly is slew footing? I've read the term repeatedly, but can never find any defenition for it anywhere.

Megatron said...

when you kick a guys legs out from behind and he basically falls on his head....dangerous

Steve H. said...

Gotta disagree here. The NHL Rulebook is quite clear on this:

Any player who deliberately applies physical force in any manner against an Official, in any manner attempts to injure an Official, physically demeans, or deliberately applies physical force to an Official solely for the purpose of getting free of such an Official during or immediately following an altercation, shall receive a game misconduct penalty.

You make contact with a ref in a manner that is non-accidental...in this case grabbing an official around the arm when you are also irritated at a non-call, you're gonna get nailed for that.

Peca should know better. He deserves some pine. One...you don't grab a ref, even if, as Peca says, he was just grabbing his arm to slow him down because he was skating away from Peca. Peca also says he regrets some of his language, which also falls into the category of Abuse, because he says he was "worked up." Couple his colorful language with his grabbing the arm of a ref who is skating away from him and you have a clear violation of the rulebook.

Now I haven't heard this announcement of it being for 10 games. All I've heard from many sources is that it is "indefinite" pending a hearing this week. But if he does get 10 games, maybe he'll think about that again before he tries to grab an official again. If the League and the Official agree to a lesser punishment then so be it, although it may be tough for them to do that as the rule they are citing him under specifically states a "minimum of 10 games."

Perhaps his pleading of the case at his hearing will have some effect. He's generally not seen as that type of guy on the ice so perhaps he'll catch the favor of a break in this one.

Unknown said...

They didn't do anything to Sundin last season when he pushed a ref away.

Peca is a good guy and sure he violated a rule and yes he therefore needs to get some form of punishment. Anything over three games for him would be too much.

Steve H. said...

True, Charles. Sundin got no reprimand for his shoving the linesman at the tail end of the Leafs/Sharks game, but a few other elements played into that.

The game was essentially over and Sundin had been in the midst of a collection of players crowding the front of the slot. The linesman sprinted in following the whistle to watch for possible scrums. Sundin turned, his head down, and pushed the linesman out of the way. The insinuation has been that Sundin never even knew it was an official.

Whether he knew or not we cannot rightfully say. However, the officials involved in the incident also have discretion when making such a call.

Consider in 2000 when CuJo went after McGeough, screaming and yelling into the corner, tripped and slid into the official, with McGeough landing on top of him.

McGeough played it off, knowing that CuJo didn't really intend to come flying into him, but at the same time he found that CuJo's actions and his language were enough to warrant a misconduct penalty.

In THIS situation, there is no doubt that Peca was "worked up" as he himself claims, and there is no doubt that as an official attempted to skate away from him he (Peca) grabbed him by the arm (as Peca himself admits).

Is it what we in the real world would term as "abuse?" Probably not. But by NHL definitions it is.

We'll just have to see how it plays out.

Dan said...

Thanks, megatron.

As for my thoughts on the Peca thing, it seems pretty simple. Intentional contact with a ref means suspension.

Unknown said...

(1) Slew-foot? Hard to tell ... I saw it live and on tape and I could not tell if it was actually a slew foot. My opinion is that it was not - Morrow is simply not that type of player. Had it been Avery I'm could easily believe it.

(2) Peca is a long-time vet. He knew the moment he touched the ref he was in the wrong. Take a look at the tape as he is skating off ... he knows he messed up.

(3) Where is the footage of him making contact? I've yet to see that angle.