Hit on Sutter irks Canes' Laviolette

Brandon Sutter Hits Alexei Cherepanov

I want everyone to go to youtube and type this in the search. I think this will show you that hits like that are a part of the game and sometimes people get hurt as a result. Obviously being from the family that he is and having the hockey knowledge that he does Brandon Sutter understands this. As you can see he plays the same way when he is put in the situation. Sutter head was sown okay, I don't see why you people cant understand that. You all claim to be hockey fans but you miss so many parts of it. I love the Hurricanes as much as anyone BUT players are gonna hit members of our team no matter what. The play was attempted to be cleaned up when the scrum erupted, Weight has to do his job whether he is a former teammate or if it was his brother coming down the ice. At that speed there was really no way to play the puck against a player with the handling of Sutter so he had no choice but to go for the body. Things went wrong and injury resulted. I know we are all home team fans and all but sometimes you have to look at things from an unbiased POV. Weight is not the type of player that intends to injure. I'm sure the players could see that and handled it accordingly, maybe we should all do the same. If Chris Neil throws that hit different story but it's Doug Weight. Let it go. We all know... HEAD HITS ARE BAD. You should also know that accidents happen as well. Weight's face was instantly concerned for Sutters well being. Someone who tried to hurt a guy doesn't care if he was hurt or not because that was the whole point.

You Southerners are hockey morons. That check was clean as could be. The only person to blame is Sutter. He put HIMSELF in that position. Doug Weight did exactly what he was supposed to do. You don't "play the puck" in that situation. That is a cardinal rule. Playing the puck is just going to get you beat. Weight was the last guy back. If he doesn't play the body, Sutter has a breakaway.

Please folks, watch the replay again. Sutter got possession of the puck below the circles in his own defensive zone, skated it past one defender and was trying to poke it past Weight who was the last guy back. In that situation, you take the body as a defender, you don't play the puck. Look, I'm as big a Canes fan as anyone, but the unfortunate reality of the situation is that Weight committed to a shoulder to shoulder hit and Sutter put his head down at the last second. I give Sutter credit, he saw Weight coming and was still courageous enough to try and make the play. And yes, he saw him coming. Look at the defensive zone angle where Sutter glances up as he collects the puck from the boards. Sutter may be a rookie in the NHL but he's played plenty of hockey against guys bigger and meaner than Doug Weight. Weight didn't leave his feet and didn't get his arms out away from his body. This is the kind of unfortunate injury that happens in hockey between two honest and hard-working players.

Now, compare this to a hit many Canes fans are familiar with: the Orpik hit on Cole a couple years ago. Orpik had plenty of time to realize it was going to be a bad hit (and thus lay off), he left his feet, and he drilled Cole into the boards from behind, and Cole was not in a position to do anything but dump the puck at the time. You can't say any of those things about the Weight hit.

Again, here's hoping for a speedy and full recovery by Sutter. He's been one of the most consistent Canes so far this season and he has a lot of good years ahead of him.

After watching the reply numerous times ( it only took me once to see what I saw) Sutter never even had control or possesion of the puck.  he was chasing it up the boards, saw weight coming at him, was trying to poke th epuck past where Weight was headed and sneak around him he other side, so he was leaning one way with his body and the other way with his stick.  Weight had committed to play the body no matter what, and I dont think Sutter even had control of the puck.  I  think it was a cheap hit, we should get back to playing the puck not the body in open ice.  Play the body hard against the boards.  

...any results from the scan, is he still in hospital, any new diagnosis posted anywhere's yet?

Some need to rewatch the play. Yes, Weight intended to hit Sutter the whole way, however, you could see Weight was intending to go shoulder to shoulder. Sutter put his head down at the last second, and bam, he got clocked.

If Sutter kept his head up, we wouldn't even be having this argument.

I'm not saying it was Sutter's fault and he got what was coming to him. But you can't honestly sit there and say Weight intended to injure Sutter b/c if you watch the play that isn't the case at all.

If Wallin hit Okoposa (sp) in the same way, I'm sure all of your tunes would be clean hit, Okoposa (sp) had his head down.

A hit like that all comes down to making a quick decision to follow through or take the high road and ease up if the player is in a vulnerable position. Sutter is guilty of skating in open ice with his head down, he is a rookie and this will definitly have him protecting himself more in the future. Having said that, many NHL players simply dont respect their own opponents enough to ease up when a guy is vulnerable like Sutter was, or like Cole was, etc... Weight certainly looked like a guy that was remorseful after the hit and I think he gets the benefit of the doubt based on his past. What is more concerning is the brutal defensive effort again by the Canes...so many breakdowns in their own end, way too many shots allowed, far too many penalties taken for lazy obstruction and hooking and holding calls...this team had no business winning that game last night, and with the guys dropping like flies and the lack of committment to team defense, this Canes club has a long ways to go to be anything close to a playoff team.

First off, Sutter was not trying to "carry the puck" into the zone. He was chasing a puck that was nearly out of reach and reached way out to try to chip it into the zone. Second, Doug Weight could easily have played the puck, but he chose to make the big open ice hit instead. I don't think that Weight is a "dirty" player, but he saw that Sutter was vulnerable and that he had the opportunity to "legally" blast Sutter and he took it. When you line somebody up for a big, open ice hit (legal or not), you know what you are doing. And the hit was to the head.

The problem is that (legal or not) SOMEBODY should have stood up for Brandon. As it was, they wimped out. Orprik took out Cole in 05, and they did nothing. Orr took out Cullen last year, and they did nothing. Somebody took out Letowski last year, and they did nothing. A clear message has been sent to the rest of the NHL: It's open season on the Canes players. Because they will not stand up for one another. Staal spoke out, because he knows that as our top player, he is the player most likely to be targeted for the next big hit.

Wondering if anyone else noticed Weight skating next to Gleason,
looking like they might be talking? We decided Weight was pleading his
case to Gleason with a "please don't rough me up" kind of discussion.
Next Islanders game with the Canes is in February, I think.
Also, I'd love to see Conboy back up. Perhaps he could hold a "body
checking" clinic. If the Canes have any hope of making it into the post
season, they're going to have to bring more physical presence to their
game. Skill only takes a team so far.
So, I'm willing to step out on the limb- and I don't desire to see
this- look for a big hit on Staal and Ward in the next game. If Sutter
is in the game within the next two weeks, he'll be easy to find- look
for the bullseye on his "shoulder"

Weight would not do something to purposely hurt a Hurricane player. The Hurricanes 06 experience meant way too much to him.

In fact I thought it was curious that the Islanders would let Weight take the penality shot at the end. I've seen much better attempts out of him.

Thing I don't get is how in the world has this team won any games?

I still marvel that a business would not protect its assets and endanger the long term health of its employees by not requiring that they wear equipment that would limit such and incident. When Andrew Ladd had a facial injury last year he wore a full cage. He was no better or worse player during that period. The moaning by players about visibility is mooted by weeks on the DL where they are useless altogether. Both of Matt Cullen's incidents last year would have been positively affected by a cage that protected the head more and in a full circumference and Sutter's hit would have been (from my perspective) subject to limitation by a full cage. Talk about the league doing something? Put all players in whatever helmet provides maximum protection and then police whatever adaptation in play evolves from that.

Most of these comments are clueless. If you watched closely, Weight had him lined up for 20 feet. Clean player or not, Weight intended to put the shoulder to him (PERIOD), NEVER any intention to go for the puck. NHL needs to get their heads out of their *%&*(. This needs to be eliminated - Weight should be serving a suspension.

1. In regards to team toughness, Bayda tried to go after Weight and got 2 for roughing. I think that was the 2nd worst call of the game. I think when someone makes a hit like that they should be able to be held responsbile and have to stand up for their actions. (Bayda would have been walloped, but that's not the point :-). Also, NYI had a power play afterword, so the CAnes would have likely taken an instigator penalty trying to make a fight happen on the next faceoff.
2: It is Sutter's fault for having his head down but WEight could have just as easily made body contact here. I'm fine with getting clocked if your head's down, but the NHL NEEDS to have rules in place against blows to the head. I don't think Weight meant to make it a head blow, but it should be made an example of. Stuff that is "frowned upon" is going to happen a lot more than stuff that is illegal.

The hit was clean. Weight did not drive his shoulder upward towards Sutter's head; Sutter turned into the hit. Very unfortunate. That being said, if teams new they were going to have to pay the price for any big hit, clean or dirty, they would be a step slower.
The reaction by Laviolette is unacceptable. It's pathetic that Bayda is the only person to react.
I understand that Laviolette has the players on a leash, but even Guerrin was taking cheap shots at Staal and Brind'amour. Brookbank and LaCoutore have jobs to do, but there is nothing wrong with your leaders dropping the gloves when the situation calls for a display of toughness.
Wasn't it Weight who dropped the gloves against Halpern when he split Staal open?

Doug Weight < Erik Cole. Brandon Sutter deserves better than that from the NYI. I wish Raffi Torres played for the Canes tonight, Weight wouldn't be able to lift his overpaid arm up high enough to elbow Sutter to the head like that. Best '06 Canes of them all. Good win tonight boys.

John Forslund was right in his in-game comments. Unless the NHL makes this a black-and-white rule, these kinds of hits will continue. However, even if such a rule were in place, I don't think the Weight-Sutter collision would've ended up any differently. I think Weight was committed to taking the body before Sutter put his head down. So, I agree with Laviolette that the NHL needs to do more to enforce head-high hits, but I don't think there was any malicious intent in this particular instance, it was just an unfortunate mistake. Here's hoping that Sutter has a quick and full recovery.

Honestly, and don't take it the wrong way. I'm as big of a Canes fan as anyone else, and a big fan of Brandon as well, but most of that hit was his fault. Sure, it was a bit rough of a hit (I was watching at a bar so my view wasn't the best), but every hockey player knows to keep your head up or that's exactly what happens. When he took the hit, Brandon was stretched out and had his head down. That leaves a LOT of body exposed for a big hit.

 I'm extremely glad to see that he looks like he'll be just fine, but it really looked like a rookie mistake to me. This is the NHL, you're playing with big fast players now, you can't leave yourself open like that or you're just asking to take a hit like that. This is something you learn when you first start playing hockey. I think it's going to be a painful lesson that Brandon learned early in his career.

These type of hits were spoken about a lot last year (at least in Canada).

Maybe technically legal but "frowned upon"...

I expect no rule changes, though, since the NHL bends over backwards to defend marginal players while doing nothing to protect the guys that sell tickets.