According to NHL.com, Nashville Predators pest Jordin Tootoo will have a disciplinary hearing this afternoon following his bad ballet recital on Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller during Saturday's 3-2 win. Brendan Shanahan is presently in Pebble Beach, California for the NHL Board of Governors meetings. The word now is that the Shanahan-Tootoo hearing will have to be done over the phone, and, not in-person.
Miller was pancaked by Bruin Milan Lucic on November 12, and was forced to miss eight consecutive games due to head and neck injuries that he sustained in the collision. Lucic was handed only a two minute minor for his hit on Miller. Brendan
Shanahan reviewed the Miller-Lucic issue and ruled that no suspension was valid due to "lack on intent".
The non-suspension ruling has created a furor in Buffalo amongst the management, coaches, players, and fans. Shanahan's critics have also been vocal about their displeasure about the non-suspension.
Today, Shanahan will get a "mulligan", a do-over.
Lindy Ruff has had it up to here with the lack of respect that his Vezina goaltender has received of late.
thanks, sabres.com
With 4:06 left in the second period, when the Sabres were being handily out-shot by the Predators. Miller was pitching a 2-0 shutout at the time and its understandable why Tootoo and the Preds were frustrated. Were it not for Miller's heroics in his crease vs. the Nashville shooters, the score could have easily been 4-0 Preds. No such luck. Miller was fantastic in his first game action since the Lucic hit.
I'm not a mind reader and I don't profess to know what thoughts are swirling around in Tootoo's skull. However, he was probably thinking that if he made contact with Miller, he'd give the Sabres goalie flashbacks to the Lucic hit, and this would likely make Miller jumpp out of the way to avoid contact.
Tootoo carried the puck into the Buffalo zone down the left side and drove hard to the net. As Tootoo arrived in the crease, he collided with Miller.
Tootoo was assessed a major penalty for charging and given a game misconduct.
I find it hilarious that after the game, Tootoo carped to the Nashville media that he thought that it was unfair that he was jumped by Miller and three Sabres and that none of the Buffalo players received a penalty for the tussling of Tootoo's hair.
"I was driving the net and I got a little shove from behind. That's the last thing I want to do, is run the goalie over and put my team down," Tootoo said. "It is what it is. But I'm skating hard, I drop my shoulder in towards the net, and clearly I tried to jump out of the way. There was no intent to charge at him. That's all I can say."
What frosts my ass is that Tootoo whined about how he was jumped by four Sabres, and none of them received a penalty:
"There were four guys throwing jabs at me for a good 30 seconds," he said. "I'm defenseless, I'm swamped by 4-on-1. What am I supposed to do? Take them all on. That's just unfortunate that Miller didn't get anything called towards him. That's all I can say."
Wah. Tootoo got pile-drived to the ice and got his feelings hurt by Miller and his buds.
This is not Tootoo's first rodeo. He's a repeat offender, who has been slapped with suspensions for dirty hockey plays in the recent past.
On March 19, 2007, the NHL suspended Tootoo for five games. Tootoo hit Dallas Stars D, Stéphane Robidas, with his glove during a game. Robidas suffered a concussion and was rendered unconscious. The NHL issued a five-game suspension without pay, and accusations of "dirty" play were leveled at Tootoo. These accusations were resurrected after an incident on October 11, 2007, in which Tootoo hit the head of Daniel Winnik of the Phoenix Coyotes with his shoulder.
I'm expecting Shanahan to slap a 5-7 game suspension on Tootoo.
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