Looking at the Donald Brashear hit on Blair Betts

It frustrated me beyond belief just thinking about that play. Brashear is hit (if you can call it that) by Voros, but because Voros immediately goes to the bench Brashear has to take out his macho insecurities on another, unsuspecting Ranger. Props to Mara for having his teammate’s back, but I wish he just pounced on the guy and started beating his face in.

What really hurt Betts was that the moment he started to change his momentum to go to the bench was when he was hit. One of the worst times to get hit as a player is when you are changing directions.

A) How does Brashear sleep at night when he knowingly tries to injure players like that.

B) It is deplorable for the refs to miss this one. They missed this and the bite. I’m not saying that there is a conspiracy against the Rangers but lets be hoenst the refs seem to be keeping a closer eye ont he Rangers than the Caps. And if you disagree just look at game 6, the reffing was deplorable.

C) Forget a suspension because Brashear is usless anyway. Kick the thug out of the league, he brings nothing to the table and is the worst kind of player.

You had me until the last line. Fighting has been in the game forever. Are you telling me that if Colton Orr was on the ice, Brashear wouldn’t have taken that run?

The problem isnt that the Rangers didnt have an alleged “deterent” in this game. A guy like Brashear is going to be stopped from throwing cheap shots not by having to get into a fight with the goon on the other team. A guy like Brashear IS going to be stopped by an NHL that heavily penalizes him, and his team.

Brashear is a far from “a mindless thug”. Say what you want about the hit and his actions during this game, but I don’t think it is fair to label him as “a mindless thug”.

Was the 14 minutes in penalties to Dubinsky. Now I know that checking from behind/boarding is something that refs need to drop the hammer on. But to give Dubi 14 mins in penalties when Braschear only gets 2 when he injured someone is beyond rationalization. I would have been fine w/2 mins for boarding & then 2 mins for roughing, but throwing in the misconduct is just plain ludacris. Top it all off with the Braschear incident before the game & there is a real problem here. I just hope that the Rangers get the last laugh in Washington tomorrow night…if not, then congrats Caps. You’ve sleezed, elbowed & bit your way into round #2.

Say what you want about Colton Orr, as far as I am concerned, they are two different individuals. If Colton Orr were to go out head-hunting in Game 7 and Caps fans (or hockey fans in general) wanted him out of the league because his sole purpose was illegally hit a player who was in a precarious situation, SO BE IT!

Comparing the two players is not the point. The point is that in this instance, a) Brashear calmly skated over towards the Rangers side during the pre-game warmups, b) threatened Colton Orr, c) proceeded to push Colton Orr (unprovoked) and then as soon as he had an opportunity, d) charge over to a Blair Betts, who was in a defenseless position, and hit him about the head so hard that Betts lost consciousness and no doubt is suffering from a concussion.

Say what you want about enforcers fighting one another to switch momentum, players trying to finish checks on opposing players in order to “let them know they are in for a long day,” and players, such as Sean Avery, who try continually to piss off the opposition, BUT remember that this is not the case here. In this case, Brashear hinted that he was out for blood, and acted out his aggression.

If the NHL, and more importantly, FANS OF HOCKEY, had any decency, they would not allow this garbage to continue on. Players who have a history of actions demonstrating malicious intent to seriously injure or incapacitate should not be playing in this league, PERIOD. Don’t try to pretend that this was not Brashear’s intent, some people here have called him a mindless thug, while others have said he is actually quite bright. I AGREE with those who say he is quite bright, since it is obvious that it took some sort of intelligence to know that hitting a defenseless player in the head means he won’t be able to hurt my team anymore.

Let’s not take away ANY responsibility here from Brashear, and subsequently, Bruce Boudreau and the Caps organization. Brashear did not accidently hit Betts in the head, he purposely aimed there in order to inflict as much damage as possible. WHAT IS THE BENEFIT OF HAVING PLAYERS LIKE THIS IN THE LEAGUE!?!?!?!?!?! Furthermore, what is the benefit of people in this forum actually standing up for what Brashear did and try to mitigate it by saying “orr does the same thign on his team.” I support fighting in the game, I support agitators in the game (like Ruutu, Avery, Clutterbuck, etc), and I support enforcers who protect the skill players; what I do not support are players like Chris Simon, Todd Bertuzzi, and Donald Brashear who act in criminally reprehensible ways, and are not removed from the game. People talk about players like Avery lacking honor, but are they blind to what Brashear does? Are they that ignorant? Unless the league, and those who support the league (aka WHOEVER IS READING THIS) let it be known that players like this do not deserve second/third/fourth (in Brashear’s case, i think it is like his 70th) chances to amend their malicious play, then it will continue and good guys like Blair Betts will be left with severe head trauma and the feeling that justice was not served.