My thoughts on this are very complex:
Kay. …I’m good with that.
I’m not exactly sure why Grabovski biting Pacioretty brought about such a whirlwind of disagreement (you shouldn’t bite people – no s*** – vs. you shouldn’t put parts of your body in or on angry people’s mouths – no s***) when, from what I can tell, the facts are pretty clear:
A) Mikhail Grabovski bit Max Pacioretty
and
B) The league doesn’t care
Again, I’m fine with this arrangement.
This tweet from Darren Dreger makes me laugh:
The evidence didn’t support supplemental discipline for Grabo, but the safety dept says it went to great lengths in search of the truth.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) February 11, 2013
Mostly because of the terminology “it went to great lengths in search of the truth,” but mostly because BULL****. I mean: Player A wraps his arm around mouth of Player B, who makes a biting motion, Player A immediately reacts saying he got bit, because he got bit, for gosh sakes. Innocent until proven guilty or whatever, but I figure innocent until Let’s Not Play Dumb is fair too. Dude bit him.
Also, it’s not that huge a deal. I saw somebody tweeting about how terrible human bites can be. Eaaaasssyy on that. I’m sure they can, but dude hardly got a full bite taken out of his flesh. He got some arm dents. I bite apples harder.
And let’s remember, he got some arm dents because he put his arm over another man’s mouth, an angry man, I might add, who is an opponent. If put in that situation I will almost certainly bite your forearm, if just to get you get lost. And that’s coming from someone who isn’t as awesomely crazy as Mikhail Grabovski.
The NHL knows this, and it’s why they tend to have ex-players making these supplemental discipline decisions. Alex Burrows did this last year…
…and didn’t get suspended. He is visibly biting another man’s finger. (Shout-out to PPP for the image)
The league has to say lack of evidence, because obviously it can’t come off as condoning biting, but I have a hunch they’re on board with “keep your flesh away from angry, restrained people’s mouths” as a general rule.
I’m not trying to be insensitive to the Habs here or anything, but like I said, let’s all be real: Grabbo bit Patches (great cat names, BTW), Patches is fine, moving on. All is right with the world.
When it happened it pissed me off, mostly because I’m a Habs fan and they were playing like shit. Today I don’t really care, it didn’t effect the game, no one got hurt, pretty sure Grabovski doesn’t have rabies, and Montreal moves on.
The media will do its best to make it an issue next game though.
Screw Darren Dreger.
paciaoretty got what he deserved. 2 Habs fans have as much told me so today…
*Two* habs fans? Well, pack it up guys, we’re done here.
what hockey nickname WOULDN’T make a great cat name?
This bite is extremely serious. Just released a photo of the results of Grabovski’s bite on Pacioretty. Check it out :https://twitter.com/raincityhockey/status/301047317115568128/photo/1
My favourite thing about this event was the indignation in the Habs dressing room afterwards. It’s like he’d sucker punched somebody. His hand grabs his face for an extended period of time. What did he expect. It’s like they thought the bite might overshadow the fact that they just got their asses handed to them at home on a Saturday night.
I’m not sure it was physically possible for Grabovski NOT to bite Pacioretty, given the lengths he went to ensure that his arm ended up deep in Grabbo’s mouth
With all the head grabs and facewash that we see, I think biting a player should result in a 1 game suspension, otherwise you’ll see a lot more of it. But if there is no proof, like a lack of bite mark that the referee can see, then no suspension, since the video will often be non-conclusive. I assume that’s why Burrows and now Grabovski were not suspended.
If biting is allowed then I’m fine with it, they should let the players know. It would cut down on the facewash for sure.
It was great to hear audios from Keith Jones and Milbury asking for Burrows to be suspended 2 years ago, and yesterday they said that Grabo shouldn’t be suspended because you have to expect to be bit if you put your arm or hand in a player’s face. Team bias ?
Sorry, but biting is 100% not OK. If you want to do something then take the back-door facewash and then fight the guy who gave you the reach around.