The good news is that the Sabres have announced that winger Pat Kaleta had been released from hospital. He will not be playing in Boston on Thursday night.
The bad news is that Leafs winger Mike Brown wasnt held accountable for the hit that should have been avoided.
Kaleta has had to deal with neck injuries during his NHL career. Stuff happens when you play full contact, high-octane hockey on a 200 by 85 foot sheet of ice surrounded by walls that are cemented to the floor, and 20 foot panes of glass that aren't as forgiving today as they once were back in the day.
Late in the first period of an evenly played 1-1 game, Leafs numb skull, Mike Brown, wasted Patrick Kaleta from behind on the wall.
Kaleta was shaken up on the play. His teammate, Mike Weber, wasted little time tracking down Brown to give the Leaf cement head a piece of his fists and his mind.
Thanks, hockey-fights.com
Kaleta would go to the Sabres room with two minutes to play in the period. He was given x-rays of his neck and upper body in th eteam's imaging suite, then he was taken to a Buffalo hospital for precuationary measures.
Brown was given a two minute boarding penalty and a five minute major for fighting. Weber was assessed the instigator, hence no powerplay for Buffalo. Garbage officiating.
Brown didn't return to the game after the fight. He wsn't available to speak with the media after the game.
No supplemental was given to Brown for the hit.
Another case of a double-standard as it pertains to Kaleta. If he was the aggressor in this hit and run, back-stabbing, you better belive he'd be suspended right now. Thats how the NHL rolls with Kaleta. Once a guy gets type-cast (see Matt Cooke and Pat kaleta) it seems that thescales of NHL justice tilt in the other direction. The gallery gods, bar stool prophets, and other NHLers say things like:
"Guilty until proven innocent".... "Serves 'em right" ..."He got what he had comin'"
Its all ignorant and disresptful. The NHL lockout taught me that tehre were 725+ unified NHL players all fighting for th ecommon good. They fought tooth and nail to protect one another against the owners.
The Brown hit on Kaleta taught me that some guys are phonies. They aren't looking out for anyone but themselves. Hypocrites.
I really have to marvel while regurgitating about the state of officiating in the Sabres-Leafs game.
At 17:46 of period two, Sabres winger Jochen Hecht received a double minor for roughing and an unsportsmanlike conduct for chirping a ref.
Later in overtime, Leaf centre Kadri careless flung his stick to the face of Sabers winger Marcus Foligno. Follow through in the shot, my ass. Kadri, like all players, has the responsibility to have total control of his stick at all times. Kadri’s carelessness opened up an L-shaped gash on Foligno’s chin that bled profusely. No penalty. Linseman was 10 feet away from the stick infraction and saw the whole thing.
Sabres end up losing with a second left in OT.
Do you think they lose the game in OT if the ref had the stone to assess the proper double minor for high sticking that caused injury?
Mike Brown got a two minute boarding call and a five for fighting for sendingKaleta to hospital?
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