Abel to Yzerman
Next entry: Tuesday Evening Odds and Ends
Previous entry: Buck Up Little Skippy...The Game's Better
Kara Yorio: Fine, Suspension, Torches for Torres
by IwoCPO on 11/14/06 at 03:26 PM ET
Comments (3)
It wasn’t my jaw rocked by a shoulder from Raffi Torres. It wasn’t my face bounced off the ice without restraint. And it wasn’t my forehead zippered with 30 stitches.
So, I find it a little difficult to sit here and tell you without reservation that the hit on Jason Williams last Wednesday was clean.
But that hasn’t stopped Kara Yorio from leading the witch hunt in the other direction. Actually, she’s not leading it. She’s prolonging it as she waited for as many people, big names, as possible to chime in with their opinions. Now that a week has passed, and Bobby Orr has spoken, Yorio has finally decided it’s time to form an opinion.
It’s attempt to injure. Any hit like that is going to injure. Orr is right—whatever it is that hits the head needs to be a penalty. From there, maybe guys will care to keep themselves and their elbows and shoulders and sticks down.
She has to be right. She works for the Sporting News. I mean, that qualifies her right there doesn’t it? Aside from reading Orr’s comments, I’m certain Kara took the time to speak with Williams, with Torres, with players who were there, with coaches who have all said it was clean, with the officials who determined it was clean, with league executives who are so paranoid about public perception that even the slightest hint of dirty play is punished.
She must have right? Absolutely before she flipped off her shoes, cracked her knuckles and twisted out ten or twelve sentences indicting Raffi Torres based on the one time she watched the clip six days after it happened.
Attempt to injure. Attempt to maim, to harm, to disable. Attempt to knock unconscious. An attempt to provoke a concussion. That’s what she’s claiming, based on Orr’s comments.
Kara Yorio is Freudian. She’s Jung. She’s Dr. Phil. She has abilities to read a young kid’s psyche, nod her head and say with all certainty, “he attempted to injure that player.” All without speaking to him.
I’m a Wing fan and the moment Torres hit Williams here’s what I thought. “He drilled him.” Then, “this game’s going to get violent.” Then, “I hope he’s ok.” At no time, watching replay after replay did I ever consider it a dirty hit. Dammit. It was a hockey hit. It was part of the game we love. A scary part, yes. Obviously it’s unfortunate Williams was hurt. But that kind of intensity is what we expect to see. And if we don’t, we bitch about it.
But not Kara. No, no. She knows what she saw six days later. And, by god, she’s seen enough.
If the hit on Williams and the many others we’ve seen this season was part of the game—as old-school apologists suggest—I want no part of this game.
Well, alright. It’s been nice, and I know you’ll miss writing about hockey once a week. But...see ya.
Filed in: | Abel to Yzerman | Permalink
Comments
Kara Yorio makes me ashamed to have an XX chromosome set, seriously.
Posted by The Acid Queen from Raleigh, NC on 11/15/06 at 12:11 AM ET
Well, if the goalies were 4 foot 3, the scoring might go up without need for all the power plays. 
Posted by Baroque on 11/15/06 at 01:13 AM ET
Add a Comment
Please limit embedded image or media size to 575 pixels wide.
Add your own avatar by joining Kukla's Korner, or logging in and uploading one in your member control panel.
Captchas bug you? Join KK or log in and you won't have to bother.
Most Recent Blog Posts
BJ’s? It’s Either A Live Blog Or That Long, Lovely Dancer At That Club Downtown. Your Choice.
Anniversary Flashback: Legace’s Legacy
How Do You Blog When Your Team’s In The Toilet? Don’t Ask Me
Whoa. Have We Been Wrong All Along?
About Abel to Yzerman
Welcome to Abel to Yzerman, a Red Wing blog since 1977. No other site on the internet has better-researched, fact-laden and better prepared discussions than A2Y. Re-phrase: we do little research, find facts and stats highly overrated and claim little to no preparation. There are 19 readers of A2Y. No more, no less. All of them, except maybe one, are juvenile in nature. Reminding them of that in the comment section will only encourage them to prove that. Your suggestions and critiques are welcome:
A2Y Stuff
-----------------------------
Wanna Feel Smart?
Does confusion make you sad? When you read words like "enigma" and phrases like "Thanks Gary. Ass", do you wonder why mean people speak in languages you don't understand? Fret no longer friend! The A2Y Glossary will bring you great joy and enlightenment.
-----------------------------
How Others View The A2Y 19
"Hell, I guarantee the content co-opters at Abel to Yzerman were about to link this article under the heading “Bitter Blues Fans” again right up until they just read that last half-sentance. Thanks but no thanks, you Kukla hangers-on."
--St. Louis Game Time
"I realize it’s the slow summer season, but can this guy tone down the tough-guy histrionics? His posts are fatiguing on an otherwise excellent site."
--A2Y Fan, Eternal_Fields
"I constantly marvel at how Bill (IwoCPO) and his disciples at Abel To Yzerman can be so pompous and full of themselves throughout every regular season, but come playoff time they collapse into wavering puddles of stress and nervousness as they anxiously await the impending and unavoidable collapse of the Red Wings in the post-season."
--Mile High Hockey
"I hate them because they are better than us. Of all the frigging teams…"
--In The Cheap Seats
"It's just a shame that the most classless, uneducated, lowbrow fanbase in the league gets this sweep. Red Wing fans don't deserve their team."
--Thhom
"I really don’t care what fans or bloggers think."
--Drew Sharp
"Why is it you Detroit fans are still so classless when you have such a classy hockey team, with such a professional GM and gentlemen players? I understand that the author of this blog is a manner-less cad, but the rest of you should be better."
--A2Y Fan, Jeff Beaumont
"Have you ever *read* A2Y? Its the most opinionated, juvenile stuff i've read."
--Paul Nicholson
"I actually like the Detroit team and have a sh&% load of respect for them, but their fans are the biggest douches next to Canadians."
--KStewy, PensBlog Commenter
I’d like to know exactly how refs would call “Intent to Injure”. Would we start calling “Intended Intent to Injure” when the checkee sidestepped a particularily brutal clean hit? Chara would have to start chugging 40’s of Olde English so he could gut check St. Louis, and he’d probably still hit him in the chin. We could start signing jockeys, and the vertically challenged, and they can skate around unheld, unobstructed, and uncheckable for a few seasons, until the average height of an NHLer is around 4’3”.
Posted by brennan from kalamazoo on 11/14/06 at 04:29 PM ET