Lucic suspended until disciplinary hearing

Well for now Milan Lucic appears to be suspended for his "supposed" cross-check to Montreal's Maxim Lapierre. But if you watch replays, Lucic's stick doesn't touch Lapierre, but his glove does.

At 15:28 of the third period, Lucic and Montreal defenseman Mathieu Schneider shoved at each other with sticks, earning Schneider a minor for high-sticking and Lucic a minor for cross-checking. Montreal's Maxim Lapierre then became involved, and Lucic hit him in the face with his stick, earning a match penalty under Rule 60.4, which mandates the call when "a player or goaltender attempts to or deliberately injures an opponent while carrying or holding any part of his stick above the shoulders of the opponent."

Under NHL Rule 21.2, Lucic is suspended until a disciplinary hearing is held. The series resumes Monday night in Montreal.
Source


So hopefully Lucic meets with Colin Campbell or whoever for the hearing and they actually watch the tape and see that Lucic's stick didn't touch Lapierre. I'm in total agreement with what Bruins coach Claude Julien said about the incident (below).

Lucic "might have lost his composure a little bit," Julien said. "You have to remember that he got elbowed in the head and then high-sticked by Schneider and then Lapierre comes in and Lapierre has been an instigator throughout the whole series and even during the regular season -- and what Looch did is react to (Lapierre) coming at him.

"It wasn't premeditated and, in reviewing it, (Lucic) hit him with his glove. He had his stick in his hand but he the glove hit the helmet. Had the stick hit him in the head, I think he would have been down, but Lapierre stayed up and kept coming at Looch. If there is one thing, I know it certainly wasn't premeditated."
Source


If Lucic does get suspended, well something here is wrong. In game 1 we saw Tom Kostopoulos throw an elbow to the head of Matt Hunwick (luckily he missed). Also there was no looking into of the claimed eye gouge of Hunwick by Mike Komisarek. No suspensions or fines were handed out to either players.

Maxim Lapierre and Milan Lucic roughing
Picture of Maxim Lapierre and Milan Lucic roughing
Image courtesy of Getty


Update @ 2:40 AM
Here is video of the supposed Lucic cross-check to Lapierre's head. You'll see Lucic's glove hit Lapierre and not his stick.

Comments

Ginger said…
LOL this is almost too funny that you and the bruins will defend everything they do or say like they are some kind of almighty saints or something. Had that happened to Lucic would you or the bruins be saying the samething? NO you wouldn't. Oh and I didn't know a "supposed cross-check" as you say could leave the “Bauer” imprint still visible on someone...was that from his glove???
Jim Kirby said…
Did you watch the whole video? Lucic definitely did cross check Lapierre. But, what started it was, Schneider got the stick up on Lucic. (Watch from :42 seconds into the video) It's harder to see from this angle but, from the NESN (New England Sports Network) coverage, you can clearly see Schneider initiated this with a cross check that would have hit Lucic's neck or head, if he hadn't blocked it with his forearm. That's what caused Lucic to retaliate with a couple of harmless wacks to Schneider's arms and body. Then Lapierre jumps Lucic and all bets are off.
Adam said…
Yup Lucic did cross-check Lapierre, but I was just saying that Lucic's glove hit Lapierre in the head, not his stick.