Vokoun recovering after slash to head

by James Mirtle on Dec 1, 2009 12:10 AM CST Comment 21 comments

Panthers goalie Tomas Vokoun is on his way back to South Florida with the team Monday night after being taken to an Atlanta-area hospital due to a lacerated ear after being accidentally hit by a teammate’s stick. Vokoun required several stiches to close up the deep laceration.

Just seconds after Atlanta’s Ilya Kovalchuk scored at 8:54 of the first period, defenseman Keith Ballard swung his stick in frustration at the goal post. Vokoun, who was down on the ice, started to get up and was struck on the side of the head by Ballard’s two-handed swing.

>> team release

Good news that he's going to be all right. This incident had the entire press box buzzing at the Leafs game tonight as it's just such a bizarre one.

George Richards has more.

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Bizzare and stupid

So I wonder what happens next with Ballard? Surely there will be an interview or something out today.

by Rage6878 on Dec 1, 2009 6:04 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

As Barry Melrose said last night, if Ballard two-hands someone on the opposing team like he did Vokoun we’re all talking about whether he only misses the rest of this season or if he’s gone for even longer. I’ll be really curious to see what the league does with this.

by Irish Blues on Dec 1, 2009 7:38 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Well, since they don’t penalize players for smashing their stick even though it’s unsportsmanlike, than it’s hard to justify suspending this kind of careless action. A fine and a league wide warning to players would suffice.

Tomas Surovy did the same thing to Jaroslav Halak at the World Championships this past year. Luckily, it just glanced off the top of Halak’s mask in that instance and he wasn’t affected.

Hockey blogging can't get any flatter.

by saskhab on Dec 1, 2009 8:27 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I think the Surovy/Halak one was pretty different… This incident, its almost certainly an accident (or Ballard is some sort of lunatic). That Surovy slap on Halak was not a trying to hit the post thing like this, it was more like a cold water and a good slap to make you wake the hell up kind of thing. Surovy deliberately hit Halak with his stick, as if to say “Hey, what the hell was that? Get your head out of your ass!”

http://sacrificethebody.blogspot.com/
Sacrifice the Body - Examining the NHL through statistical analysis, reasoned thought, and blind conjecture.

by IAmJoe on Dec 1, 2009 12:32 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Ballard will at least avoid suspension, which I think is the right call:

It would be odd for the league to discipline Ballard for what he did, but there is no doubt it was extremely reckless and there is latitude for the commissioner to suspend a player for actions detrimental to the game. After the Thrashers scored their second goal of the game, Ballard went to slash the goalpost in frustration, but instead caught Vokoun on the side of the head, resulting in Vokoun having to be carried off on a stretcher.

http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/29729-THNcom-Blog-Ovechkin-wont-avoid-suspension-this-time.html

-Kevin Forbes
Hockey's Future

by kforbes on Dec 1, 2009 8:29 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Can the team suspend a player? If I ran a team I would want to punish the guy in this situation.

Pensburgh.com

You come at the king, you best not miss.

by Hooks Orpik on Dec 1, 2009 10:14 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

The team can suspend a player. Me and my roommate were talking about this one last night, and he thinks the team ought to suspend him a couple games, but to me, I don’t think you want any action coming from the team in this instance. I’m sure Ballard feels like enough of a boner already – why would you want the team, who has to work with him on an every day basis, to pile on? Just to avoid any sort of issue of causing bad feelings between the player and the team, I wouldn’t think the Panthers would want to fine him or suspend him. I would, however, think the NHL will want a piece of his paycheck for the incident, which is totally deserved.

http://sacrificethebody.blogspot.com/
Sacrifice the Body - Examining the NHL through statistical analysis, reasoned thought, and blind conjecture.

by IAmJoe on Dec 1, 2009 12:35 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I’m sure Ballard feels like a total bastard…. He didn’t appear to be trying to slash his goaltender….. unless the Fla Panthers endorse player-on-player slashings as punishment for bad play (although the Vocoun seemend to be beaten honestly on the play)…

By far the strangest thing I saw yesterday…..

by Mateos_Canes_Lamp on Dec 1, 2009 7:42 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

I thought this quote was interesting:

``There’s not a guy who feels worse than he does,‘’ said fellow defenseman Bryan Allen. ``He means well, he was doing the right thing. He was showing he cares.’’

Smashing your stick over the net does show that you care. But whenever I see players do that I always think they should focus their energy on the next shift.

by Its Cold In Here on Dec 1, 2009 9:25 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, I never understood why this is acceptable

Really? Smashing your stick against the crossbar in a fit? It’s one of those things that doesn’t come up much, but it’s really quite absurd. Whether it’s beer league or the NHL, you’re basically announcing to the world: “I have the emotional intelligence of a four-year-old, and I don’t intend to change. But it’s okay, I’m only hurting myself (and my teammate, and my team’s stick budget).”

I loooooove Allen’s “he was doing the right thing” quote. That’s priceless. You go, pro athletes! Keep livin’ in that world!

Lighthouse Hockey: Side effects may include Weight gain and frequent game loss.

by Dominik on Dec 1, 2009 10:01 AM CST up reply actions 2 recs

But remember, not smashing your stick around or yelling in a mad rage means that you’re not emotionally there and don’t care. That can lead to benching, just ask Alex Frolov.

by Malurous on Dec 1, 2009 3:49 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Bahaha! Very nice.

Lighthouse Hockey: Side effects may include Weight gain and frequent game loss.

by Dominik on Dec 2, 2009 11:29 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

+1 to Allen for defending a teammate.

But no, he was not doing the right thing at all. Recklessly flailing your stick around is not the right thing, even if your goaltender isn’t two feet away from you.

by Resolute on Dec 1, 2009 5:10 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Bob McKenzie has weighed in and has more or less killed the story:

I am sure the NHL and the Panthers believe Ballard’s punishment for this misdeed is simply being mortified that his temper tantrum resulted in a pretty significant injury to a teammate. Just having to watch that highlight over and over and over again should be punishment enough for Ballard.

…

Vokoun apparently felt well enough on the plane last night to talk to Ballard and tell him to forget about the incident, although Vokoun might have mentioned that Ballard owes him a number of free dinners.

http://tsn.ca/blogs/bob_mckenzie/?id=300670

-Kevin Forbes
Hockey's Future

by kforbes on Dec 1, 2009 12:49 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

I’m gonna go ahead and say it. I cannot believe the NHL is just going to sweep this under the rug and not do anything … and understand that I’ve typically been on the lighter side of punishment if not pretty accurate with what the league hands down. I don’t care if this was to his own teammate, the league needs to take a stand simply because that could have been an accidental 2-hander to any other person on the ice not wearing a Panthers jersey – in which case, some people would be demanding Ballard never play in the NHL again.

No, having to watch the highlight over and over isn’t enough punishment. No, knowing he clubbed his teammate upside the head and caused him to get carried off on a stretcher isn’t enough. There should be a deterrent to make sure that no other player ever swings his stick near a teammate for any reason.

I’m not saying sit him for half the season or even 20 games [though if it was against an opponent, he’d be sitting the rest of this season and the playoffs], but I’d give him 5-10 games and never think twice about it.

by Irish Blues on Dec 1, 2009 10:51 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I think what you are more likely to see is something broader from the league (and this is already being speculated by a quite a few who were discussing the situation during the games last night).

I would not be surprised that the next time a player breaks his stick (or attempts to) or another “showing he cares” action that could be perceived as dangerous to himself or others, he’ll be whistled down for an unsportsmanlike.

-Kevin Forbes
Hockey's Future

by kforbes on Dec 2, 2009 5:45 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Well at least they’re going to do something. In other news: NHL closes the barn door at its NY headquarters; horses last seen in Kentucky, still running southwest.

I’ll also bet any “we’re really serious about players not breaking their sticks on the goal if they’re frustrated” crackdown will last about 2 weeks – or about as long as each alleged crackdown on diving.

by Irish Blues on Dec 2, 2009 8:53 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

You want the NHL or the Panthers to lynch Ballard for accidentally hitting his teammate on the noggin? I guess you’re entitled to your own opinion. I just don’t see how punishing Ballard really accomplishes anything. That said, I’m sure this could easily be described as thoughtless use of his stick that recklessly put the safety of himself and others on the ice in peril or something along those lines. But…seriously?

Was he careless? Sure. Was is an accident? Sure. Have players been breaking sticks over things countless times before (and since, considering Mason’s trying to break his after Columbus lost in the shootout a couple nights ago) without incident? Yep.

To me, punishing Ballard is unnecessary. It was a stupid move by him and thankfully no one got hurt, but there clearly wasn’t any sort of intent and it was teammate-on-teammate. Should Tootoo have been punished for that time he jumped on a fellow Predator a little too enthusiastically to celebrate a goal last season and ended up injuring him? I would view this the same way with the only difference being one was in celebration while the other was in frustration.

-Kevin Forbes
Hockey's Future

by kforbes on Dec 2, 2009 10:48 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Normally stuff like this happens to the Thrashers, not to the other team…

by Black ice in Alabama on Dec 1, 2009 1:13 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

What a boob.

by hallock on Dec 1, 2009 1:24 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Color me entirely unsurprised. Okay, I was surprised that Keith Ballard sent his own goalie off on a stretcher, but not that he did something really stupid. When he was here at Minnesota, he was known for great passing, a good shot, a physical presence, and about one stupid penalty a game. I don’t mean to dump on him too much, because he was a very good player for us, but you could also count on him to get so wound up that he’d kill a rally by checking someone from behind. If anything, he had better tools than Jordan Leopold and Paul Martin (and that was a fantastic defensive corps when we had all three of them for one season), but not their cool and smarts.

by J. Michael Neal on Dec 2, 2009 10:52 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

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