Eric Nystrom Hit On Taylor Fedun: Suspension Worthy, But For How Long?

Which in no way changes the fact that no-touch icing should have been in this game since 2001 and, as a long-time member of the Competition Committee, there’s a great argument that Shanahan should be suspending himself.

When I saw it, it looked like Fedun tripped over the stick.

You can even see the referee make the signal for a trip right away, he then changed it to boarding (I wonder if that’s because you can’t give a 5 minute major for tripping??).

Every player knows the outcome of making contact on that chase. Every single one. He ignored his own knowledge – it’s dirty.

I disagree with Derek that this was pre-meditated, but I do agree it was a stupid, careless play that needs to be out of the game.

IMO, there are two possible solutions.

Implement no touch icing and give Nystrom a small suspension.

Leave touch icing in and give him a very long suspension.

If you are going to leave touch icing in the game, you have to show that trailing player is the one responsible for making sure a play like this doesn’t happen. That means it’s his job to avoid contact, his job to make sure his stick doesn’t go into a skate, etc…

You need to read the boarding rule, and the cinig rule, and then watch the play again. There is no check delivered, and little contact. Nystrom makes a play on the puck, which he is allowed to do under the rules. You can call me biased all you want, but this is the first post by anyone anywhere in the media that seems to think this was a dirty play, or that Nystrom has premeditation on the play.

It may be time to take a step back, man, and re-watch it. Time to get players like this out of the game? Players like this? Eric Nystrom? I have no words, man. None at all.

I’m in full agreement here, and actually was kind of taken aback at how off-base I felt this post was.

I have yet to see an angle or video aside from the one in the post – a single, very zoomed out view of the play. Yet from there, and most of what I’ve heard from around the blogosphere, it looks like none or very little bodily contact, certainly not more than we very frequently see on rushes for icing. It looks to me like Nystrom is trying to reach his stick over/through Fedun and get the tap on the puck, which happens all the time. Nystrom’s contact is almost exclusively stick to skate – whether Nystrom actually tripped Fedun, or Fedun stepped on the stick that was there, I can’t really see without a better view. If Nystrom actually is putting his stick between Fedun’s skates to specifically trip him, then absolutely, its a shamelessly dirty play and he should be suspended. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone in the NHL ever just go “fuck it, I’m gonna do the old can-opener move to him” on an icing play, and unless Fedun shot Nystrom’s dog and boned his mother, I cannot possibly fathom that Nystrom actually attempts that move. Even Matt Cooke doesn’t make that move. So its probably an incidental trip, trying to reach around Fedun to contact the puck, or its an accident on Fedun’s part in that he steps on Nystrom’s stick. Either way, attempting to reach around a man and contact the puck on icing is a legal play, that happens hundreds of times a year without incident. That this one was the 0.01% that had an accidental injury (regardless of severity) doesn’t make it dirty, nor worthy of a suspension. It sucks, and its more reason why no-touch icing should be implemented, but Nystrom was playing by the (flawed) rules the NHL gave him to play under.

If it is worthy of a suspension, I certainly hope to see you decrying the dirty tactics of every other defenseman in the league when he makes the same exact play 10 times a night with the same fervor as you have here.

Shouldn’t be part of the game, I agree. Change the rule. At this point, however, it is a part of the game. Common sense is to do what the coaches have trained you to do for your entire career, which is exactly what he did.

I agree…..the puck was on the far side of nystrom…if he actually thought he could poke it with his stick (facepalm)

It wouldn’t have negated the icing call

BULL. SHIT.

You are honestly going to sit here and tell me that you have never ever in your life seen an NHL defenseman make a good play to poke his stick through/around a defender and make a touch to negate an icing?

Never?

Never in your whole life? You’ve never ever seen that SAME EXACT PLAY work out where no one gets hurt and the defenseman negates the icing?

Which is completely ok…..the fact that injury did occur means that a message needs to be sent so as players dont try to do that same thing again,

That’s actually not a bad idea, but no-touch just makes sense. It’s used everywhere else.

I believe Nystrom when he says he didn’t mean to take Fedun out like that.

When they talk about the control players have, it’s less in terms of “trying to touch the puck and getting a guy’s feet” and more in terms of “guys are perfectly capable of changing their angle enough to lessen a cheap hit if it’s within the realm of human reaction time.” That’s more for consideration in the case of headshots and hits from behind than this. This I think is the inevitable outcome of touch-icing: have it happen enough times and eventually something horrible is going to happen without anyone really meaning it. You punish the reckless act, sure, but you should really be changing the rule so it never comes up, in a scenario where doing so wouldn’t damage the integrity/fundamental nature of the game.

I’m pretty stunned to see it read as “a premeditated attempt to board Fedun.” Based on the lone foggy camera angle I’ve seen, it looked like Nystrom made a premeditated attempt to touch the puck with his stick before Fedun did, which is sadly all that’s required to negate an icing.

It’s a play that happens almost every game, and it’s 100% the product of an archaic rule that says you can negate an icing not by claiming the puck, not by accepting an actual pass, but by merely touching a puck first. When there is no requirement to secure possession and you can still “win” an icing without even beating the opponent to the boards, this is what happens: Players reach in with their stick to try to get that absurdly all-important first touch on the puck.

It plays out like some arbitrary schoolyard rule: “No, you were supposed to land the dice in the second square,” and doesn’t in any way relate to what icing/negating icing should be about, which is whether a lengthy clear/stretch pass was just a dump or was an actual attempt at creating possession in the other team’s zone.

But no, we have to keep this rule in place because it makes for “exciting” moments like this. When a guy’s femur is shattered in a predictable accident.