Darcy Tucker is under fire today, and I don’t just mean from the folks bashing him on the message boards. Despite a rare solid game for Tucker against the Wild last night - he had the lone goal as well as a couple of hits - the buzz this morning is on his low hit on Nick Schultz:
Six-and-a-half minutes into the third period of the Wild’s 3-1 victory, Tucker was called for clipping after he went for a low-bridge hit aimed at Schultz’s knees. An angry Schultz drew a roughing penalty in retaliation.
“My concern is at the end of the second, he tells me he’s going to come and take out my knees, and then he actually does it,” said Schultz, who got into a verbal exchange after a physical exchange late in the second. “It says everything you need to know about that guy.”
“He’s been that type of player his whole career, and you don’t need that in the game. It’s something we’re trying to get away from — hits to the head and taking out guys’ knees. It’s just a gutless play.”
Adrian Dater adds the following embarrassing summation of the Avalanche’s Dick Cheney policy:
When Schultz was saying this, Tucker was headed to the showers, so we never got any comment out of him. But we’ll be sure to tomorrow. Although, knowing the Avs, they find a way to make him somehow conveninently unavailable to the press.
Thankfully, I haven’t seen a lot of those types a hits in the league. I remember seeing the play last night, but had to go back to my Tivo to watch it again. Tucker is definitely going in low on the play. There’s no way to corroborate the accusation that Tucker told Schultz earlier that he was going to go for his knees. I just can’t tell if that’s an intentional attempt to injure or not. But, If it is, they need to throw the book at Tucker - there’s no place for that kind of crap in this league. And they probably will.
Obviously, Tucker has a bit of a reputation for those kinds of hits. In fact, when I googled “clipping” for a definition of the penalty, I found the following wikipedia entry:
Clipping was instituted as a rule in the National Hockey League in 2002, following a low hit on 26 April by Toronto Maple Leafs forward Darcy Tucker on New York Islanders captain Michael Peca. The hit occurred during a Stanley Cup playoff matchup between the two teams, and Peca was unable to play for the remainder of the season. When the NHL added the new rule, the videotape distributed by the league showed the hit as an example of a clipping penalty that would result in an automatic game misconduct.
Here’s a thought: if you are getting penalized for a penalty the league because of you, you might have a problem.
I don’t know much about Tucker as I never really saw him play before this year. I would hate to think that any player in this organization would act in this manner.
Americano, last year it really hit home to me that the Avs have given up their image as a classy team and organization. The evidence has been mounting for a few years though. Brad May, Kasparitus, Tucker, and Mcleod are guys I struggle to cheer for as they disregard the code. Note that grit and dirty asshole are not the same thing. Adam Foote has been a punishing force for years but I have never seen him sweep the leg.
Lowayne, I think you’re a little off. The Avalanche have always had those types of players since 1995. Claude Lemieux was not a whole lot cleaner than Tucker. Chris Simon was/is a madman.
I don’t think it says anything about the organization. I don’t think the Avs are any less classy for having Tucker than the Stars are for getting Avery or the Senators are for having Jarko Ruutu. Agitators are a crucial ingredient to good teams.
Their recent player moves have been awful, but I don’t think class or lack thereof is the problem.
One redeeming Quenneville quality… he didn’t allow that crap. Even when McLeod was doing stuff he would pull him off the ice.
If he would just have some patience with anything else, I would have really liked him as a coach
The penalty was tripping not clipping. Tucker plays on the edge, but also scores, like he did against the wild and again tonight against Nashville, which is why we acquired him: gritty with hands. I’m sorry Schultz was offended, but I like the idea of having Tucker on the team.
the ref on the ice called clipping - you can hear the audio clearly in the game. it was put down as tripping though, perhaps because the hand signals for clipping and tripping are very similar:
clipping: Striking leg with either hand behind the knee, keeping both skates on the ice.
tripping: Striking leg with either hand below the knee, keeping both skates on the ice.