Connelly Chimes in on Hockey Violence

Boys Gone Wild
By Jim Connelly • USCHO

Is it me or is the college hockey world being overcome by incident after incident that leaves the average fan shaking their head. After a season that’s had a rash of problems for players both on and off the ice, last week saw one of the top scoring players in the nation head to the NHL after some sort of off-ice incident followed by one of the longest brawls that college hockey has seen.

Things began on Thursday when it was announced that Denver’s top scorer, Brock Trotter, had signed an NHL contract with the Montreal Canadiens. Simple, though somewhat strange to happen mid-season, the signing followed Denver head coach George Gwozdecky benching Trotter for a two-game series a week earlier at Minnesota State.

Gwozdecky and Denver had no comment on Trotter being left out of the lineup and never made any official announcement of a suspension. That won’t be necessary now that Trotter has departed the program, but there certainly remains what seems like some unanswered questions.

While that drama spun off the ice, Canisius and RIT engaged in a donny-brook of fights on Saturday night that resulted in 239 penalties combined in the 4-1 RIT victory. Honestly, after watching this amateur video of the altercation, I’m surprised that there weren’t more penalties assessed. It will be interesting to see if the league imposes any additional suspension.

These are two in a long list of incidents both on and off the ice that have drawn attention this season. Boston College, Boston University, Maine, Vermont, Colorado College, North Dakota, New Hampshire and Michigan all have suspended or dismissed players for off-ice incidents. Out in the WCHA, North Dakota has twice been involved in brawls and head coach Dave Hakstol has has his share of problems, getting into a verbal tussle with Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves earlier in the season before recently being suspended for “flipping the bird” at an official during a series with Minnesota.

So the question at hand is what the heck if going on?

The answer may be difficult to find. In terms of off-ice issues, I personally believe that there have been problem similar to these occuring within teams for years. Before the era of real-time media, I think that most of these problems could be swept under the carpet.

As for the on-ice altercations, in essence everything that has happened is part of the game. There will be brawls at times. What will curb these incidents is how the league reacts. AHA commissioner Bob DeGregorio has the chance to send a message that behavior such as what was witnessed on Saturday night isn’t acceptable. There were some automatic suspensions associated with the penalties that were handed out, but there when you have players leaving the penalty box, goaltenders skating the length of the ice to start fights and players beating other players with helmets, supplemental discipline is certainly warranted.

Game Day notes

• The USCHO takes a look at this week in the WCHA as well as a commentary on the suspended players from Theresa Spisak below:

While it could be argued that the conference is having a bit of a down year with the exception of a few teams, it looks like even the top teams in the conference aren’t trouble-free.

It came down recently that Colorado College will be without two of its players for the rest of the regular season and one until next year. Senior forward Derek Patrosso was suspended until March 12 and junior forward Cody Lampl until January 2009 for violations of the school’s student conduct code.

Given that the Tigers have been one of the more successful teams in the WCHA this year, what does this mean for them? According to CC coach Scott Owens, not much.

“Both [players] are going to be missed as teammates and friends,” he said. “It’s going to affect our depth at forward a little bit, but if we’re deep at any place, it’s at the forward position with 16 forwards.

“With Billy [Sweatt] in the World Juniors and a couple injuries recently, we got through probably as thin as we’re going to be all year this last weekend,” Owens elaborated, talking about his team’s second- place finish in the Lightning Classic in Tampa.

“It affects our quality depth a little bit, but we’re deep. I’m not saying it isn’t going to affect us, but I feel comfortable with what we have and adjustments that we can make that we’ll be fine.”

“Just some other people have got to pick up the slack,” he added matter-of-factly.

• And, the CC Athletics website takes a look at every single bit of Tiger information that you can dream up on their weekly assessment of the upcoming UW series.
• One last blogger note, I will be out with friends from out-of-state tonight so I won't be able to post info from the game at the time of finish. But don't worry, I will make up for it later in the weekend! Go Tigers!
• Oh and yes I did notice 2 typos in my survey at the top of the page, the poll creator is a huge pain in the butt to create and edit so just pretend you don't see em ;)
  

CC suspensions talk of Colorado

Judging from the google searches from the day that lead to my site and the referrals from the DU Blog (I posted their story about the suspensions), the CC player suspensions are a hot topic among hockey fans in the state. Anyone's guess is as good as the next regarding what exactly one would have to do to get suspended until next season and basically kicked out of school (read: Cody Lampl). Whatever the case, the fact that no one at CC is releasing any information is just letting this thing run wild with rumors and stories, as I posted earlier. I tend to stay out of message boards simply because they seem to be full of over-opinionated and/or hyper-sensitive types that have nothing else to do but b*tch about stuff (ever read the comments on the DenverPost?!) So, as far as what the DU bloggers did to provoke an outcry, I could care less. they did, however, love the fact that I posted their "bounty story" on here.

As far as the suspensions themselves, the closest person to the team and information is Kate Crandall of the Gayzette and all she has said is the length of the suspensions, who it was and that "Colorado College president Richard Celeste cited privacy laws in declining comment Thursday on the school suspensions of two hockey players." according to the last printed piece in the paper. SO, that leaves all of us hockey fans to mock "Who knew that photoshopping Coach's face with Ron Jeremy's body was against Facebook's Rules?", and make funny yet obscene references to college frat hazing "CC hockey players learned that in Colorado a sheep is not a "consenting adult" as that term relates to sexual acts." Just a few of the funny guesses that are popping up on the DU blog. Judging from the recent news coming out of that ultra-liberal campus, the players probably did something "insensitive" to offend a minority group that doesn't even have one representative at the campus. Remember, this is the same president that said the student chants at games are "blatantly homophobic in nature" and went nuts over the blackface incident (something I went off on earlier), even if it is the highlight of the night for many of us fans. And, thanks to our DU friends, I have an amazing pic to go along with this whole ordeal. I think everyone just needs a big hug...

Internet rumors at their best

Still no word on why Colorado College has suspended Derek Patrasso, Cody Lampl and Chad Rau but that doesn't mean you can't throw your guess into the ring. Check out the "bounty" offered on the DU blog for correctly guessing the reasons!