'Marc Savard Rule' Ignored as Tyler Myers Elbows Johnny Boychuk

It’s funny how quickly the NHL forgets its rulebook and continuously changes it on the fly.

This past Monday, NHL head disciplinarian Colin Campbell warned the 16 NHL general managers whose teams are in the playoffs that harsh punishment would come down on any pregame shenanigans during warmups. The warning said that should an incident take place, the offending team could lose a roster spot on the night the incident takes place, meaning the disciplined team would be forced to play the game with 17 skaters and two goalies. Campbell also said that goalie interference would not be tolerated.

But apparently, less than a month after the “Savard Rule” was instituted, the NHL is already moving on to enforcing less important rules that have nothing to do with the safety of the players.

During the second period of Game 1 of the Bruins-Sabres Eastern Conference quarterfinals, Sabres defenseman Tyler Myers — a candidate for the Calder Trophy — drilled Bruins defenseman with an elbow to the head. It was exactly the type of hit the league said it wanted to clamp down on with this new rule, but yet, here we are in the playoffs, when there is even more spotlight on the game, and the Boston Herald is reporting that there won’t be any discipline for Myers.

“I didn’t see him coming, I didn’t have the puck and I felt like it was a shot to the head, I guess,” told the media, per CSNNE.com’s Joe Haggerty. “Then they called it the freakin’ hit of the night in the arena with the fans going crazy. He was coming right at my head. [He hit] me right on the side of the jaw. I guess they’re letting that go now. I expected a physical game no matter what. It is playoffs and everybody is going hard and putting everything on the line because they want to win the Cup.”

point regarding the HSBC Arena JumboTron replaying the hit to the fans’ amusement is exactly what’s wrong with the NHL and proves the league to be hypocritical. Every NHL arena spotlights these types of hits on the video boards, and they’re followed by cheers from the fans. There’s no blame on the fans here, but how can the NHL still allow such hits to be promoted in its arenas when it promised to rid the game of them? Instead, the league believes a little pregame trash-talking will tarnish its image more?

But what if Boychuk had been being carried off on a stretcher, much like his teammate Marc Savard was back on March 7? What would happen then? Well, if history were to repeat itself, nothing would happen to Myers, and the league would simply make more false promises. That’s exactly what has happened here, minus the promises.

“They can go back, but I don’t know if they would. It would be nice if they do, because that’s the same thing that happened to our player,” Boychuk said, referencing the Matt Cooke hit on Savard. “It’s part of the game: hitting. I’m OK.”

But what if wasn’t OK? The league would have another PR mess on its hands — a much bigger mess than if some Bruins and Sabres players did some trash-talking and had a pregame skirmish.

http://www.nesn.com/2010/04/marc-savard-rule-ignored-as-tyler-myers-elbows-johnny-boychuk.html


12 Responses to 'Marc Savard Rule' Ignored as Tyler Myers Elbows Johnny Boychuk

  1. reinjosh says:

    cue the "Myers is a dirty f*cking dick and he should have his hands cut off for that!"

    I must say, that was one of the tamest questioned (meaning that people are saying this or that about it) hits I've ever seen. And there was no elbow, I don't know what the writer of this article is seeing, no elbow was delivered. As for being labeled Savardesque, thats bull. Nowhere near that. If Boychuck can't take a solid hit, he shouldn't be playing this game. Acting like a little b*tch.

    On a side note, Ryder should get suspended for his blindside hit on Ryder. Simply Disgraceful.

  2. jpmac says:

    Meh. More of a interference penalty then a hit worthy of a suspension.

  3. Magleaf says:

    ryder blindsides who? himself..

    seriously thoe i wanna know

    i think thats the hit im thinking of i saw the othe night, there wasnt even a penalty i think either

  4. hockey_lover says:

    If these conspiratorial things keep happening to the chia and his team of rogues, I think bbruins is going to have a nervous breakdown.

  5. DannyLeafs says:

    This article is just awful. It is very biased. I am not saying that it wasn't at least a somewhat border line hit, but the article makes it sound like Cooke-Savard 2.0, when it was more of an unfortunate collision. If you are down low like that you need to be more aware. The video looks to be shoulder on shoulder, and while it is possible that Myers made contact with Boychuk's head, it was most likely incidental and just a result of the size difference between the two. Also, Myers had no speed, not intent, he was just making his way over to the play and ran into Boychuk. The video clip they have embedded in the article is awful as well. It basically looks about as conclusive as seeing the play out of the corner of your eye. If you are writing an article about the hit, why would you use such an awful clip if you think the act is self explanatory?

    Like I said, it's not that a case couldn't be made that it should have been penalized, or possibly looked at by the league, but this article does a terrible job of getting any point accross other than the writer is a bruins fan.

  6. Kramer says:

    I got elbowed trying to get a seat on the subway last week. I'm still day to day.

  7. reinjosh says:

    haha, it was a joke
    he nailed his own teammate in a blindside fashion
    i was just making a jab at the writer lol

    its in this clip, i can't remember where
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEvYBlDYkPo

  8. reinjosh says:

    yeah, it wasn't even dirty
    it wasn't even all that hard at all

  9. flopfish says:

    Cant resist a perfect that's what she said opportunity…

    Yeah, the hit wasn't dirty.
  10. hockeyhead says:

    justice.

    boychuck and ryder have absolutely leveled sabres with knockout, clean hits.

    the sabres are about as soft as they come and are going to get beat up bad in this series.

    and the bruins dont have stuart and seidenberg. that would be more pain.

    look for the sabres to add grit next season.

  11. Magleaf says:

    ferrance and ryder..   that was a huge hit

    we need more hits like that in the nhl

    haha

  12. DannyLeafs says:

    I think is was a solid hit, and I think if Myers had any intent to injure Boychuk he would have been injured. Myers came at him with pretty much no speed, and it looked to be a shoulder to shoulder hit. If Boychuk got hit in the head or the jaw I think it was incidental and just a unfortunate outcome that has more to do with Myers being freakishly huge than Myers making a dirty hit.

    However, my argument was more with the article than the hit. The article is just awful, and obviously biased. If someone had made a debate out of the hit where they outlined their rationale for it being punishable, then that would be ok, but this article just assumes that it is blatantly obvious that this hit breaks all the rules and is every bit as bad as the Cooke on Savard hit. Then there is a video in the embedded in the middle that could be the worst possible replay to illustrate any point what so ever. All you see on that replay is a cut to the collision after the actual hit, it doesn't really show the actual initial contact.

    I just don't understand how so called "writers" can write such awful articles. It's not just this particular writer either, it seems the sports columnists for many major newspapers write some particularly awful articles, and I think the Toronto Sun has the king of all awful sports columnists in Steve Simmions. I hate listening to this guy, he is just awful, and almost always way off base with any predictions or so called "breaking stories".

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