If he had a cape, he would look like superman!

Posted by w2j2 on 04/11/08 at 11:40 AM ET

Regardless of what team a player is on, I think that it’s ridiculous that every time someone is called for elbowing now, there’s an outcry for a suspension.  Kronner got 2 for the hit, the Wings killed the damn penalty, END OF STORY!!!

Posted by Chris from Columbia, Tennessee on 04/11/08 at 11:52 AM ET

If you watch the highlights at NHL.com, there are two or three “clean hits” (I believe by Tootoo) where he manages to deliver an elbow without leaving his feet. And yet, oddly, there were no penalties called.

(Also on the topic of leaving one’s feet...while watching “McGuire’s Monsters” Monday night on the TSN/NHL Network playoff preview coverage (I guess “Douche Canoe’s Monsters” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it), I came to the realization that it is apparently impossible for Dion Phaneuf to check anyone without leaving his feet.)

Posted by YzermanZetterberg on 04/11/08 at 12:01 PM ET

It must be hard for him to get pants that fit properly, with that 60-inche inseam measurement. 

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 04/11/08 at 12:02 PM ET

I can’t believe you people. Have you LOOKED at that picture?  Perverly clearly caused Kronwall to high stick himself. That’s just as bad as if Perverly was holding the stick himself.

Damn right I want him suspended. And he should apologize to Kronner.

Posted by Gabriel from San Diego, CA on 04/11/08 at 12:19 PM ET

It must be hard for him to get pants that fit properly, with that 60-inche inseam measurement.

It’s really not that ha...I mean...it’s not that difficult, Baroque.

Yeah, I went there.

Posted by Gabriel from San Diego, CA on 04/11/08 at 12:23 PM ET

Anybody have a link to a replay?  Did he leave his feet before or after contact?  For a guy you’re hitting to go down like the Pred player did, and you hit him that hard, your feet are going to come off the ice.

Posted by PaulinMiamiBeach on 04/11/08 at 12:27 PM ET

Yeah, I went there.

*groan*

For a guy you’re hitting to go down like the Pred player did, and you hit him that hard, your feet are going to come off the ice.

Is this going to be a physics debate? 

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 04/11/08 at 12:40 PM ET

Is this going to be a physics debate?

If so, we had better consult Sasquatch. His insight into the laws of physics is truly incredible.

Posted by YzermanZetterberg on 04/11/08 at 01:53 PM ET

That’s right, Chris Pronger tells us that elbowing people in the head has to happen because of the LAW OF PHYSICS (um, Newton’s laws?  Quantum physics?  Einstein’s equations?)…

The problem with Kronner is that he followed through high.  To me, that’s a penalty, albeit an understandable tendency to shift one’s body weight from the hips upward as you bump guys, and to push your elbows upward as you extend them.  Kronner delivered the vast majority of his kinetic energy to Peverley while his feet were on the ground, but that follow-through popped him off his feet and sent his elbow into Peverley’s head.  Peverley didn’t feel that it was a dirty hit because he didn’t have his bell rung.

Posted by George James Malik from South Lyon, MI on 04/11/08 at 01:57 PM ET

From http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080411/SPORTS05/804110420/1048

Peverley said he didn’t think it was a dirty hit. “I saw him coming and the ref called an elbow penalty, so it must have been an elbow,” he said.

Too bad Trotz, Ellis, et al didn’t apply the same logic to Zeterberg’s GWG (i.e., “The linesman didn’t call offsides, so it must not have been offsides.")

Posted by YzermanZetterberg on 04/11/08 at 02:29 PM ET

See. It’s stuff like this that makes it difficult to hate you guys. Great post.

Posted by PredNeck from Hicktown on 04/11/08 at 03:11 PM ET

PredNeck, we don’t hate you guys either, it’s just playoff smack-talking

Posted by Chris from Columbia, Tennessee on 04/11/08 at 03:41 PM ET

...tendency to shift one’s body weight from the hips upward as you bump guys.

Posted by O-Joe on 04/11/08 at 03:56 PM ET

It’s all about weight transfer, just like taking a slap shot, when a lefty, for example, will start with his or her weight on their left foot and shift it to their right, transferring some of that weight into the stick swing and thus giving the puck more momentum. 

When you hit a guy, especially if you’re a guy with a low centre of gravity like Kronwall, you bend your legs, get down low to the ice to push your centre of gravity even lower, and you tend to lift one hip and/or elbow and attempt to transfer that body weight and its commensurate momentum into the player you’re attempting to hit.  Sometimes you lift up that hip too much, your foot comes off the ice, your elbow comes up, and you end up practically launching yourself off the ice because all your body weight’s on your other foot, and you instinctively extend that leg because you’re about to fall. 

A little Newtonian physics, an analysis of inelastic collisions, and some Kinesiology. 

Even Chrissy Pronger might remember that stuff--in junior high and high school, they teach you about inelastic collisions by using air hockey tables and weighted pucks, discs, or toy cars.

Posted by George James Malik from South Lyon, MI on 04/11/08 at 06:28 PM ET

Too much physics; not enough fun.

As flexible as Kronwall appears to be in that photo, it’s extremely difficult to understand why he’s so injury prone…

PredNeck: you’re alright.

Posted by Hoser from Downer Peninsula, Michigan on 04/11/08 at 07:35 PM ET