Joe Devin Suspension (updated 2/14/08)

[lynah80]

From the Ithaca Journal 2/13/2008
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Cornell hockey: Cornell's Devin to sit out 2 games

By Brandon Thomas
blthomas@ithacajournal.com
Journal Staff

ITHACA — ECAC Hockey announced Wednesday afternoon that Cornell's Joe Devin has been suspended for the Big Red's next two games as a result of his hit on St. Lawrence defenseman Jared Ross on Saturday.

The incident occurred at the 1:21 mark of the second period. Devin was assessed a five-minute major for contact to the head and a game disqualification, which carries with it an automatic one game suspension. On Wednesday, the league extended that suspension to include both of this weekend's games at Lynah Rink — Friday against Union and Saturday against RPI.
   
Ross was injured on the play, lying on the ice for 5-10 minutes before being wheeled off on a stretcher. Ross had movement in his extremities but was taken to a North Country hospital for precautionary measures, Cornell assistant director of athletic communications Kevin Zeise said. A CAT scan and X-rays both came back negative.

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It looks like Jared suffered a concussion.  See:

http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080214/BLOGS05/80214006/1006

Let's hope he is back to normal very soon.

[Josh '99]

Jeez - sounds really bad, what kind of a hit was it?

[oceanst41]

Someone who was there can be more enlightening, but from an SLU fan over at USCHO I got this general report - it was a clean hit as far as timing was concerned, but Devin got his elbow up and made contact with the head.

[Josh '99]

[quote oceanst41]Someone who was there can be more enlightening, but from an SLU fan over at USCHO I got this general report - it was a clean hit as far as timing was concerned, but Devin got his elbow up and made contact with the head.[/quote]Gotcha.  Can't argue with an elbow to the head being seriously penalized.

[KeithK]

[quote Josh '99][quote oceanst41]Someone who was there can be more enlightening, but from an SLU fan over at USCHO I got this general report - it was a clean hit as far as timing was concerned, but Devin got his elbow up and made contact with the head.[/quote]Gotcha.  Can't argue with an elbow to the head being seriously penalized.[/quote]
On the other hand, you can ask whether extra suspension is warranted.  Certainly the league wants to strongly discourage contact to the head in order to safeguard player safety.  But the DQ already does that.  It seems to me that it's appropriate for the league to impose extra penalties when either the game referee failed to properly penalize the player (not the case here) or the hit showed clear intent to injure.  The fact that the kid was taken out on a stretcher does NOT in and of itself indicate intent to injure or warrant additional penalties IMO.

I'm not really arguing against the suspension here because I haven't seen the play.  It may well have been very deserving of additional punishment.

[Trotsky]

[quote KeithK]Certainly the league wants to strongly discourage contact to the head in order to safeguard player safety.  But the DQ already does that.  It seems to me that it's appropriate for the league to impose extra penalties when either the game referee failed to properly penalize the player (not the case here) or the hit showed clear intent to injure.[/quote]The third possibility is that the referee didn't have the authority to properly punish the player.  The ref's effective ceiling is the current game plus one more.  Theoretically I suppose it might be possible for a ref to issue multiple DQs, but I haven't seen that ever done in a college game.  That means the league (and the team) have the responsibility of meting out additional punishment.

I have no idea whether the hit deserved an extra game on the pine, but I think the league is within its proper sphere to do it.

[Avash]

[quote Trotsky][quote KeithK]Certainly the league wants to strongly discourage contact to the head in order to safeguard player safety.  But the DQ already does that.  It seems to me that it's appropriate for the league to impose extra penalties when either the game referee failed to properly penalize the player (not the case here) or the hit showed clear intent to injure.[/quote]The third possibility is that the referee didn't have the authority to properly punish the player.  The ref's effective ceiling is the current game plus one more.  Theoretically I suppose it might be possible for a ref to issue multiple DQs, but I haven't seen that ever done in a college game.  That means the league (and the team) have the responsibility of meting out additional punishment.

I have no idea whether the hit deserved an extra game on the pine, but I think the league is within its proper sphere to do it.[/quote]

Not only is it possible for a ref to issue multiple DQs... it happened to Carl Hudson this past weekend in the RIT-Canisius brawl: http://collegehockeystats.net/0708/boxes/mcnsrit1.f09

Today, Hudson was suspended for the rest of the regular season.

[ugarte]

[quote Avash]Not only is it possible for a ref to issue multiple DQs... it happened to Carl Hudson this past weekend in the RIT-Canisius brawl: http://collegehockeystats.net/0708/boxes/mcnsrit1.f09

Today, Hudson was suspended for the rest of the regular season.[/quote]
You would know better than I would, Avash, but was Hudson given multiple DQ's for the fight or was it more like "DQ!" "FU, ref!" "DQ 2!"

[upperdeck]

So kennedy gets hit. no penalty is out several weeks and it warrants nothing. Devin gets a penalty a game DQ and is in now gone for almost 2 weeks..

the only difference is that Kennedy was knocked down and able to skate off while wobbly never to return and the STL kid was carried off. has there been an update on his status?

[sah67]

The league handed out the same suspension that Devin got to the RPI player (Burgdorfer?) who nailed Gallagher a few weeks ago.  Gallagher remained in the lineup for the rest of the game.

[redhair34]

[quote sah67]The league handed out the same suspension that Devin got to the RPI player (Burgdorfer?) who nailed Gallagher a few weeks ago.  Gallagher remained in the lineup for the rest of the game.[/quote]

he was suspended for the hit on Scali (Gallagher was also involved in a hit earlier in the game)

[lynah80]

This is from Brandon Thomas of the Ithaca Journal:

February 14, 2008

Jared Ross update

I received a voice mail from St. Lawrence coach Joe Marsh this morning about Jared Ross' condition and just figured I'd pass it along. (See the beauty of this blog idea?)

Marsh confirmed Ross has a concussion and won't be playing this weekend — actually, he won't even be skating until the middle of next week at the earliest. As is usually the case with concussed players, everything will be played by ear moving forward.

For those of you that missed it, Ross — a junior defenseman with the Saints — was knocked out by a hit from Cornell's winger Joe Devin last Saturday.  [text omitted]

It's worth noting that everyone on both sides has moved on from the incident, though. So this is the last you'll hear of it.

"There are no hard feelings here," Marsh said. "They don't have a string attached to the guy. It was a pretty scary hit. But the Cornell guys did as great of a job with the situation as they could."

Posted at 9:26 AM

[oceanst41]

[quote upperdeck]So kennedy gets hit. no penalty is out several weeks and it warrants nothing. Devin gets a penalty a game DQ and is in now gone for almost 2 weeks..

the only difference is that Kennedy was knocked down and able to skate off while wobbly never to return and the STL kid was carried off. has there been an update on his status?[/quote]

From what I remember from watching the video the hit on Kennedy wasn't an illegal one. He had to look backwards to receive a pass and that allowed the defending player to step up.

[upperdeck]

any hit to the head is illegal.. the ref ruled he didnt get hit in the head which he did. he also got a concussion and hasnt played since.. why does one warrant more of a penalty than the other if its all comeing after the fact?

[KeithK]

[quote upperdeck]any hit to the head is illegal.. the ref ruled he didnt get hit in the head which he did. he also got a concussion and hasnt played since.. why does one warrant more of a penalty than the other if its all comeing after the fact?[/quote]
If the ref ruled he didn't get hit in the head then maybe it was more borderline contact to the head and therefore less worthy of extra discipline than a clear shot.

Someone earlier mentioned the suspension given to the RPI player.  If the league is consistent about issuing suspensions for dangerous contact to the head then I don't have a problem with it even when it burns Cornell.