The San Jose Sharks have some unfinished business with the Edmonton Oilers?
The Oilers and the Sharks met recently on Friday night. The Sharks walked away from Rexall Place with 2 points and a chip on their shoulder. San Jose Sharks' head coach, Todd McLellan had some interesting thoughts after the game regarding how JF Jacques was a little rough with Sharks' star, Joe Thornton. His use of diction was a little more carefully worded than that of Pat Quinn. Pat Quinn was recently fined $10,000 this season after voicing his opinion of Jarome Iginla's hit on Sheldon Souray. As it turns out, the 'tit for tat' or 'dirt for dirt' mentality is still alive and well in the NHL, teams are just a little careful how they talk about it.
Here's San Jose head coach, Todd McLellan's response when asked if he thought the Sharks should have responded to JF Jacques' rough play with Joe Thornton:
“I very much do,” McLellan said. “I think there’s two ways of doing that and one of them we accomplished. We went out and scored a couple of goals that put them on their heels and we ended up winning the game.
“The other one can be a physical response, whether it’s with the individual or some of our other players getting physically active with some of their elite players,” he added. “We took care of it one area. I don’t know if we had the opportunity to take care of it the other way.”
“We have to be careful because the win supersedes everything else,” McLellan said. “You play against teams a number of times. You can respond later on if you have to.”
From my perspective, there's a few interesting points made by Todd McLellan. First, the most important thing is to hurt the team where it hurts most--on the scoreboard. Secondly, his comments are in keeping with the adage that revenge is dish better served cold. As for the bold comment, it raises the questions of whether you make the player of issue answer for his actions or whether you target the offending team's star talent? To clarify, I am far from advocating dirt for dirt myself. It's no secret that teams already try to target opposing team's stars with hard but clean hits
Speaking of answering back when teams play excessively rough with your star players, there's the issue of the Michal Handzus boarding of Ales Hemsky. The Oilers will play the rest of the season without Hemsky who has a torn labrum. From what I understand, he was already playing with an injury to that shoulder which was compounded by the Handzus hit. If you missed it, here's the YouTube:
Playing rougher with their top players is just a reputation the Oilers are trying to build. If they know it's coming, they should be prepared to play that sort of game (like how Regher is always with Hemsky). This is where I think the instigator is stupid. If a guy like JFJ wants to go hit Joe a couple times, then let them have a guy try to beat him up.
Star player retribution is a different story. If you go in with the intent of taking them out of the game or for retribution purposes, then that's wrong. But sometimes you just gotta play rough with the top players to shut them down (JFJ vs. Joe, though we didn't exactly shut him down).
I love how JFJ rung Thornton off the turnbuckle. LOVED that hit. It's refreshing to be on the other side of the dirty hits for once. But yes, that's what it was - a dirty hit. Maybe borderline though, because Thornton turned as the hit came. But JFJ has been known to do that this season... I've seen him hit guys with their backs turned all season. Am I against that? Oddly, no.... I love that JFJ hits everyone and everything and finishes every single check. I don't consider him a dirty player though, but I consider him a bit borderline at times. Not in the same league as Raffi "El Bows" Torres, however. But it's good to see he got under the other teams' coaches skin.. interesting... didn't even dawn on me that the coach would have been pissed about it.
+1
... written by Jay, November 30, 2009
Hey Horpensky/Racki,
Yeah, it's interesting that JF Jacques with the SJ Sharks and previously Ryan Stone seemed to get under the skin of the Calgary Flames. They're both probably the only Oilers players really capable of doing that...
I can't find it, but I thought I read a Ken Hitchcock quote where he basically said that his strategy was to run Washington's star players every chance that he had.
As for me, I am all for knocking the hell out of opposing teams' star players provided that it's done cleanly.
Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics.
Advertisers
The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.
Bloggers Wanted
The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.
The Bloguin Login
The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account!
Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics.
The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.
The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.
The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account!
Star player retribution is a different story. If you go in with the intent of taking them out of the game or for retribution purposes, then that's wrong. But sometimes you just gotta play rough with the top players to shut them down (JFJ vs. Joe, though we didn't exactly shut him down).