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Brian Burke Advocates the “Bear Hug”
by Alanah McGinley on 10/30/07 at 01:51 PM ET
Comments (7)
From Kevin Allen at USA Today,
Anaheim Ducks general manager Brian Burke says the Randy Jones hit from behind that injured Patrice Bergeron illustrates why the defensive “bear hug” should be legal when a player is in a vulnerable position.
“In those situations a defenseman has two choices right now: He hits the guy or he looks like a fool,” Burke said. “We need to put the third option back into the game.”
Before the lockout, when a defenseman approached a player with his back to him, he would put his arms around the player and “bear-hug” him into the glass. In an effort to open up the game, the NHL ended that practice by penalizing a player who takes a hand off his stick to tie up a player.
“In the old days, the two bodies went in together,” Burke said. “Now it’s like two billiard balls. One ball hits another and propels it into the boards.”
Filed in: NHL Teams, Anaheim Ducks, NHL Talk | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: brian+burke,
Comments
How does a Ref distinguish between holding and bear hugging?
Posted by Itlan on 10/30/07 at 01:16 PM ET
How does a Ref distinguish between holding and bear hugging?
Hard to tell. I’d presume some of the simpler rules behind when a “bear hug” would be permitted would be (a) if the player being hugged is facing towards the boards, and (b) the duration of time allowed for such a grapple.
Additionally, should the player turn away from the boards to try and escape one way or the other, the defenseman must willingly release the hugged player, and resume playing as he normally would.
Posted by Michael from Columbus, OH on 10/30/07 at 01:49 PM ET
Stop the world I agree with Brian Burke. It is akin to briefly pinning a guy to the boards as opposed to blasting him into it. You still don’t hit the player on the name or numbers and you don’t need to wrap your arms around him, but instead contain him against the boards.
Posted by Hockey1919 from Montreal on 10/30/07 at 02:11 PM ET
Maybe he should use his own advice and “hug it out” with Lowe…
Posted by karlpils on 10/30/07 at 02:35 PM ET
Wow...other than the general notion that we both “like hockey,” I think this may be the first time I’ve ever agreed with Brian Burke.
I agree, seeing players get hit from behind is tought to swallow, you never know how seriously injured that player might be.
Posted by PuckHound61 from Speckville USA on 10/30/07 at 02:39 PM ET
Hard to tell. I’d presume some of the simpler rules behind when a “bear hug” would be permitted would be (a) if the player being hugged is facing towards the boards, and (b) the duration of time allowed for such a grapple.
It would be tricky, but the refs are asked to make judgement calls on timing of late hits and such right now. It would be a lot easier to count a couple seconds in your head while a player is being pinned to the boards and you are looking right at it, than judging how late after a player has released the puck he is hit while the official is already turning to follow the play and might only catch a possibly late hit in his peripheral vision.
Smaller forwards might even have an advantage against big, hulking defensemen, because they could duck under their arms and still maintain possession of the puck!
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 10/30/07 at 02:56 PM ET
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Wow...other than the general notion that we both “like hockey,” I think this may be the first time I’ve ever agreed with Brian Burke.
Posted by YzermanZetterberg on 10/30/07 at 01:10 PM ET