Friday, November 21, 2008

Another Casualty, this one named Nielsen

UPDATE: Mottau suspended two games for elbowing
And they wonder why the Islanders fans fall into conspiracy theories! WTF?

I am not that upset with the 5 - 2 loss to the Devils. I am, however, very upset at the loss of Frans Nielsen who has been doing so well under Scott Gordon recently.



Injury may be part of the game, but inflicted injury is another thing. Of course, this leaves us waiting on pins and needles to see if the NHL will dole out the punishment they claim will be the norm for an elbow to the head by Mike Mottau.



I did not see the hit. I cannot comment on whether or not Frans had his head down, or the look of intent. I can only comment on what I have heard from the League regarding their desire to take a stand on hits to the head.



Well NHL, while I await the determination of how long we will lose Frans for, I will also await a decision on Mottau. If Pock received a five game suspension and the loss of over $17,000 in salary, what will Mottau receive?



This is a question every Islander fan has on their mind tonight. It almost eclipses the thoughts of a game in Buffalo tomorrow.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

left me in a bad mood for the whole night. It didn't look good the way his leg and skate were on the ice. All because that punk Mottau was going to miss his check so he decided to go high. Let's hope it isn't serious (but again it did look bad) and Mottau gets a 5 or more game suspension to think about his stupid harmful play.

Bryan said...

From the very top row of The Rock, it certainly seemed as though Mottau has his arms up at the very least. I've read people say Mottau butt-ended Nielsen, but I have to see the replay to see what really happened. It's a shame - Nielsen was by far their best player (aside from MacDonald) up to that point.

islesblogger said...

Nielsen did not have his head down, he beat Mottau with a move and he left his feet to hit Franz. As if the hit wasn't bad enough (Nielsen was wobbly when helped up), his skate caught a rut and his knee bent in a manner that it's not supposed to (think Jon Sim). It was just all around bad.

Sutter claims it was a clean hit, hypocrite.

Not one mention of the league looking into it on any of the major sports websites this morning - because it's the Isles naturally.

Paul Kreischer said...

7th Woman:

I was at the game and saw that hit. Yes, Neilson's head was up, and Mottau went the width of the ice to get to Neilson. Mottau also left his feet. The Devils fans around me were thinking that the Islanders would be on the powerplay, but instead, Hunter gets hit with a major, which took him out of the game also.

Dani said...

I missed the whole game due to work but caught the recap on 94.3 on my way home. It sounded like they played hard and got the short end of the stick quite a few times this game. Oh well. Can't win 'em all.

As for Nielsen; I scoured the web just now and can't find any updates on his injury. I really hope it isn't serious. He was just heating up. Besides the fact that the team needs him, that was a senseless injury. There better be a suspension here. From everything I've read, it was a dirty hit by a player that doesn't usually play dirty. Sounds a lot like the Pock incident, huh?