i like how the commentators are praising lucic for a clean hit when he literally “flew” into van ryn.  he’s in the air for a good 2 feet before he gets to him.

Posted by chase on 10/24/08 at 02:35 AM ET

It looked like Lucic had his left skate down on the ice until contact was made. It looked like “launching” rather than flying.

Posted by Dave from NJ on 10/24/08 at 08:46 AM ET

30 seconds in, you see his jersey’s yellow stripe steadily rising, how he’s pushed himself to slam Van Ryn’s upper body into the boards, and his left skate very much appears to be joining his right foot in a jump. I say this, but this is grainy YouTube, and so everything that seems so obvious with only blurriness could easily be denounced when you get actual footage.

Really though, there should be some comment that you do not try to do that. Part of the thing about boards is that while the combination of boards and the glass can withstand brutal checks, when you leap so as to put all your force onto the upper body, directing none of it through the hips/legs and therefore into the boards, the glass cannot take that force, and it will be the fans who suffer most of all, along with the sport’s reputation. I think it’s too much that this happened, let alone that I can still remember previous glass-shattering incidents still.

Posted by SENShobo from Waterloo, ON on 10/24/08 at 11:19 AM ET

Now I realize what I think I want to compare that hit to. It appeared to have no feet on the ground (maybe not quite 2 feet in advance though), as near as I could tell. But place this hit beside the benches. A normal hit at the benches, and a player has painful hips, and maybe leans or later reels into the bench a bit. This hit at the bench, from what I saw, would have had Van Ryn licking Ron Wilson’s shoes.

Posted by SENShobo from Waterloo, ON on 10/24/08 at 11:34 AM ET

It’s a good thing van Ryn was wearing a helmet...a big piece of glass did not fully shatter and came crashing down on his head.

Posted by K24 from NYC on 10/24/08 at 12:25 PM ET

Well, I was at the game, 1 or 2 sections from where the hit took place, and it was quite the site. I was in the corner, so I had a perfect view. Luckily, it didn’t look like anyone was hurt, and of course, the Boston fans loved it.

Posted by NHLJeff from Boston, MA on 10/24/08 at 12:29 PM ET

I stand corrected, it looks like two people got a few cuts:
http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/hockey/bruins/view/2008_10_24_Two_fans_injured_after_Bruins_check_shatters_glass/srvc=home&position=3

Posted by NHLJeff from Boston, MA on 10/24/08 at 02:04 PM ET

If you’ll notice it’s actually Lucic stick that breaks the glass not the hit. There are a million better views then this one on youtube.

Posted by John from Boston on 10/28/08 at 01:48 AM ET