All Habs News — March 10, 2011
National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman responded today to the Air Canada letter and Chara’s hit on Max Pacioretty.
“Air Canada is a great brand, as is the National Hockey League, and if they decide that they need to do other things with their sponsorship dollars, that is their prerogative, just that it is the prerogative of our clubs that fly on Air Canada to make other arrangements if they don’t think Air Canada is not giving them the appropriate level of service.”
“Our hockey operations people are extraordinarily comfortable with the decision that they made. It was a horrific injury, we’re sorry that it happened in our fast-paced physical game, but I don’t think whether or not supplemental discipline was imposed would change what happened and in fact the people in the game who I have heard from almost to a person, believe that it was handled appropriately by hockey operations.”
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Montreal Canadiens’ Owner and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Geoff Molson, indirectly responded to the league’s decision by sending an open letter to the fans of the Montreal Canadiens.
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Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty spoke to TSN Hockey Insider Bob McKenzie from his hospital room on Wednesday evening about the injury that he suffered against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night.
“I am upset and disgusted that the league didn’t think enough of (the hit) to suspend him,” Pacioretty told TSN. “I’m not mad for myself, I’m mad because if other players see a hit like that and think it’s okay, they won’t be suspended, then other players will get hurt like I got hurt.”
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=357316
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Boston Bruins’ forward Milan Lucic commented on why he wanted to fight with with Montreal Canadiens’ forward Benoit Pouliot in Tuesday night’s game, following the Chara hit on Max Pacioretty.
Well, he fought [Krejci]. He’s pretty tough when he fights [Krejci] but when he has to fight a guy his own size he clearly won’t do it,”
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Joe Thornton of the San Jose Sharks (Ex Boston Bruins player/first round pick) and Henrik Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks had the following to say about the National Hockey League’s decision to not penalize Chara, for his vicious hit on Pacioretty.
“It’s just something with Boston; it seems like they have a horse shoe. There’s just something about Boston and the disciplinary [decisions] are on their side. I’m not sure why that is or anything. I’m not assuming that Colin’s kid being on the team, that’s why.” – Joe Thornton
“What are you doing to do the next time Trevor Gillies comes down and runs a guy into the thing? You can’t give him anything. And you tell the guys [Chara] has no history, so the next time he does it he still has no history because he didn’t get suspended. I don’t see the reasoning behind it. Give him at least something to show that’s not acceptable.” – Henrik Sedin
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(Photo: Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press)