I don't know who Ryan Dixon is, but his take on Lilja's decision to fight Phanuef after Phanuef cleaned little Jiri Hulder's clock is ridiculous...
http://www.thehockeynews.com/article...clean-hit.html
Hockey has so many great traditions, but one of my least-favorite customs was on display last night in Detroit.
Calgary crusher Dion Phaneuf laid out little Jiri Hudler with one of his patented, bone-crushing hits at center ice. Even Hudler’s mother would tell you it was a perfectly clean play. But that didn’t stop Detroit defenseman Andreas Lilja from extracting revenge on Phaneuf in the form of a fight.
I admire Lilja’s spirit; teammates have to stick up for each other. And had it been a dirty hit, I could live with retribution by donnybrook.
But the consequence for delivering a clean hit should not be a forced five minutes in the box. Phaneuf had no choice but to partake in the bout once Lilja came after him.
Why should he (and his team) be punished for making what amounts to a great defensive play? Should Phaneuf have to sit on the bench and weigh his options before a shift?
Would the thinking go: “Well, I could give my team a lift by laying somebody out, but is that worth our worst defenseman getting more ice time while I sit in the box for five minutes?”
And don’t try telling me Phaneuf shouldn’t be clipping Hudler’s wings just because he’s a little guy. If Hudler can’t take the hits, he shouldn’t be in the league. If small players didn’t have to endure hard checks there’d be nothing remarkable about them playing with the big boys.
The proper course of action when a teammate gets smacked with a hard, but legal, hit should go something like this; pat him on the back, tell him his still-attached head has to be up at all times and, of course, get the number of the delivery truck and some time when he’s not suspecting it, two months down the road, crunch him with a clean check of your own.