I was thinking of Photoshopping Jack Johnson's picture onto one of those "Free Mumia" posters. But after watching this video, once again courtesy of Michiganhockey.net, I'm apoplectic.
Wow.
What else can you say about CCHA officiating when Jack Johnson has to miss a game for his hit, but David Booth is allowed to take a run at a guy without the puck and clearly hit him in the head?
I really don't think you can convince me that allowing suspensions to be determined after the game has been played and video has been reviewed undermines the powers of the official anymore than embarassing, obvious mistakes like this.
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Here's the link to the Booth hit just so people out there can compare the two (probably easier to post this on the main page).
http://michiganhockey.net/videos/booth%20hensick%20hit.wmv
Another big difference is that the hit on Hensick and the hit Johnson did is the fact that Hensick was NOT driven into the boards...
IMO Johnson should be out longer than one game - especially given what hedid in the World Juniors...
Did you see Johnson's hit in the World Juniors? How can you say that hit was so terrible and say Booth's hit wasn't a big deal? It's the same type of play except that Booth gets a running start and actually lands his shot to Hensick's head.
So Booth coming up from behind on an unsuspecting Hensick, who never had the puck (unlike Howells), and blindsiding him with a forearm to the side of the head is okay because it happened at center ice, but Tyler Howells, who had the puck just moments before, seeing Jack Johnson coming his way and taking a shoulder-to-shoulder crushing hit is bad because he hit the boards? Wow, that's some interesting logic! Are you saying Johnson's hit would be okay had it happened at center ice like Booth's?
Umm, you do realize that if you get hit while you're pressed up against the boards it hurts substantially less than an open ice hit?
The only real problem with checking from behind is if the person is out a foot or two and there's the chance of them being driven into the boards head-first when it's unexpected. I've taken plenty of hits from behind, and if you know it's coming and you have your head up, nothing bad is going to happen. I've also seen two of my friends get hit from behind when they weren't expecting it; one got a concussion, the other got taken out on a stretcher. Given that the guy saw it coming, and he turned his back at the last second from what would've been a perfectly clean shoulder check, there's no real issue.
If anything, Booth should be out for a game because of intent to injure. It happened nowhere near the play, and out of nowhere he takes a run and punches Hensick in the face, which is a lot more likely to cause some kind of head injury due to whiplash than JJ's shoulder check.
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