Evgeni Malkin questionnable hit on Nicklas Grossman.

[Vanflyer]

@aziz

"schenn took a stick high, and sold it in exactly the way that other guy said bothers him about the penguins. he threw his head back and collapsed to the ice for 5 minutes...but was back up and skating at full speed, none the worse for wear, 10 minutes after that. on the replay, the stick caught him across the chest and stuck under his shoulder pads as it was riding up. no contact with the throat, no real damage done. i'm sure it scared him, and i'm also sure it was him laying on the ice like he was dead that got asham ejected and suspended for 4 games. "

Sometimes I think you are NTP66 in disguise.

1) The stick clearly caught him in the throat. (

)

2) Try and take a chop to your throat. Initially you can not breath, but then your airway opens up again. Your assertion that Schenn was purely theatrics is way over the top absurd.

3) The punch to the back of Schenns head was Asham saying that "you are a faker"? Really? Chris, even NTP66 and the other pens fans do not post garbage like that. Asham was out of control. Plain and simple (the same as neal was, but neal got a pass).

4) Your assertion that him laying on the ice like he was dead (though I have never seen a dead person writhing their legs while they are in pain) as the reason that asham was suspended is utterly and inexplicably BS.

I mean clearly Couturier was knocked out worse than Schenn- yet neal did not get 4 games?!?

Additionally, while I think Shanahans review policies are shoddy and very inconsistent, to suggest that he looks at a player in a prone position in order to determine a suspension is ludricous (at least I hope so).

I can understand a bit of your frustration at "blindness" or "koolaid" drinking, but I do not think this is an example that even remotely supports your case. If schenn did not have the smarts to at least brace himself, Asham would have sent him flying blindly into the boards with his head leading the way (throat or no throat hit).

[aziz]

@Vanflyer

1.

it really never did hit him in the throat. it got caught on his shoulder pads and never made that far up and in.

2. again, asham didn't actually catch him in the throat. had he caught him in the throat with that much force, an emergency tracheotomy would have been required. rather than chopping yourself in the throat as a test, have your friend hit you with a stick, and tell him to lean his 200+ lbs into it. if it really hits you in the throat, you aren't coming back to play anytime soon.

i think it knocked the wind out of schenn, and probably scared the crap out of him. pure theatrics? no. more drama than was really needed? yeah, i think so.

3. i agree, asham's shot to the head was an extra fcuk you, not a you-faker.

4. of course schenn's time laying on the ice is what got asham suspended. are you naive enough to think shanahan sits there and diligently watches tape of every game from start to finish to see all the details? for it to make it to his desk, there has to be an event on the ice that obviously warrents his attention. if schenn bounces right back up, there is no event. asham gets 2 for crosschecking and that's about it. the long pause of the trainer on the ice and the tv crew playing the replay over and over is what draws attention to this stuff. that's why malkin's hit on grossmann had no chance of resulting in anything: grossmann didn't make it into a big deal. had grossmann collapsed into a heap and layed there for a while, let NBC show the hit a few times from a few angles, malkin would have had a telephone hearing the next day. instead, grossmann gets right back to his feet and no one thinks about the play again, outside of some hyperobservant flyers fans.

i think schenn supports my case just fine. the person i was responding to said had grossmann been a penguin, he "would of fell like being shot with a sniper rifle, and sprawled and floundered, helped off the ice to get the call and ejection for our player (cause this is how Blysma coaches) then after the ejection that player would return." that is EXACTLY what schenn did. grossmann wouldn't have been entirely faking in that poster's hypothetical; he really was hurt. schenn wasn't entirely faking; he really was hurt. but his time on the ice led everyone to believe it was significantly worse than it was.

[Vanflyer]

@aziz

Ok, here we go.

1) Your video link does not work for me, so I don

[Polaris922]

I know you're going to say "of course" because I'm a Pens fan, but it's nice to see Aziz has it right. I get frustrated listening to Pens fans shout about the same types of plays you guys are. "Schenn's dive from the Asham crosscheck" as they call it. Yes in slow-motion you can see the stick never hits Schenn's throat. What I think the suspension was most deserved for was the punch when Schenn was down. THAT was uncalled for. I've spoken to Asham about it, actually, and he stated emphatically the stick never went above his shoulder pads. Regardless, I get frustrated too. I see Briere dive, Schenn last night took Malkin's shove and turned it into a spectacular swan dive behind the net, putting Malkin in the box... Coburn's sudden fall when his skate barely skips off Adam's in Game 4... let's face it... hockey is a contact sport. Stuff happens. But every team has players who embelish it. Every team has players who, like Aziz said, get away with more than others. Every team has players who can't even smile without getting two minutes. (i.e. Cooke when getting crosschecked repeatedly suddenly got a holding the stick penalty when he'd been penalized for having his stick held earlier as "hooking".) Crosby takes a beating from Flyers fans because he's a pansy or whatever some like to think. But the truth of it is he's a pure hockey talent, and he takes a LOAD of abuse that never gets called. ALL superstars whine to the refs. Yes, even Giroux. If a Pen talks to the refs it's whining, if a Flyer does it it's just discussing the play? It's the same across the board. ALL great players complained to refs because ALL great players have been clutched and grabbed by lesser players every game. And for the record, the "elbow" to Grossman looks more like a high shoulder to me. The concussion came from Kennedy hitting him earlier. I agree if Grossman had stayed down they may have reviewed it, but even the Flyers management didn't complain to the league about it, with Grossman "reportedly" saying it was negligible contact. I can't find that anywhere to confirm it, was said on NHL radio.

Aziz it's great to see a Flyer's fan who is a true fan of hockey, not just the home team. I don't think there are many of us out there anymore who really try to look at things without, in your team's case, orange tinted lenses.

[Polaris922]

Oh and yes Schenn's hit on Martin was charging. He leaves his feet prior to contact. But no Pens fans are whining that he should be suspended for it. Amazingly... *shrugs*

[doom88]

Minus the thinly veiled mockery, good post. I agree, there are Flyers that dive and embellish. Some feel the game and match it for "strategy", others like Briere and formerly Carcillo are especially despicable. No honor at all. I will say though that little guys getting hit from significantly bigger guys doesn't always appear fake to me. Catch them at a bad angle on a near zero friction surface and away they go. I know they are all supposed to be pros and awesome skaters, but Hartnell just learned how to skate this season.

If refs called diving, and sometimes not the embellished act, this crap would stop very quickly.

[aziz]

1) Your video link does not work for me, so I don�t know the angle you are seeing. I posted you the angle I saw and it looks pretty plain that the stick rides up and hits Schenn in the throat.

it wasn't a video. it was a screen grab of the three frames where asham's stick gets closest to schenn's throat. if you click on it, it'll expand into a bigger version (that's what she said).

my point is the slant of the home team fan. a thing happened to a flyer. it appeared the flyer was the victim of a grievous injury. he went down hard, stayed down for a long time, trainer came out, he had to be helped off the ice, the attacker got ejected. but, turns out, he was ultimately perfectly fine, and came back to play shortly after. because it was a flyer, it was all legitimate. totally reasonable, there is no disconnect between how the player reacted and what injury he really suffered. flyers fans will go to great lengths to examine and justify why it all made sense.

i don't have a problem there. like i said, the thing had to have stunned schenn, probably knocked the wind out of him. i think he also took every bit of time he could, and as a result of the optics, asham was ejected and suspended 4 games. thing is, a day later, some guy here enumerates the EXACT sequence of events in the abstract as typical of penguins players and their cheap approach to the game, apparently not realizing how his theory matched schenn's actions to a T.

there should be bias, we as flyer fans should see the hit on schenn and get pissed. and if we see the same thing with a penguin, we should say, "oh, come on, you're fine, it didn't even hit you in the throat". that's natural, that's what happens when you want to see good things with one team and bad things with another. we're fans of one and hate the other, and our gut reactions will reflect that. it's when someone takes the time to sit down and move those from gut reaction to carefully concidered and typed out statements that i get annoyed. if you can stop and think about something and still end up with a colored interpretation, imo you have a problem.

as for what the suspensions should have been, i don't know. honestly, even though there was no damage done, what asham did was insanely dangerous. if schenn had worn a different kind of shoulder pad and that stick slipped past the shoulder caps, he really could have done life threatening injury to schenn. he and schenn got lucky that things played out like they did, and i think the 4 games is a soft sentence. neal...personally, i think neal should have gotten 2 games, one for each hit. neither of them were the most egregarious hits ever, but both were pretty blatant and...optional. optional insofar as in each case, the play had left and neal had no hockey reason to be hitting those players, much less hitting them high. i don't buy that the hit on couturier was unintentional, but his elbows stayed down. so, bad, but i've seen way worse. i don't know what the contact on giroux would have looked like had giroux not ducked. certainly high, but without solid contact i don't know where the hit would have landed or with what body part. so, a game per.

[aziz]

Aziz it's great to see a Flyer's fan who is a true fan of hockey, not just the home team. I don't think there are many of us out there anymore who really try to look at things without, in your team's case, orange tinted lenses.

thank you. it is a way more interesting game to discuss when we can agree on the reality of it. when reality is constantly dumped in favor of some bias-feeding fiction, what's the point?

[aziz]

If refs called diving, and sometimes not the embellished act, this crap would stop very quickly.

agreed. i've been saying that for a long time. the league should start a season with an anti-diving mandate, instructing the refs to err on the side of calling the embelishment for a few months. the bad side is that some players would be sent to the box for being the recipients of real hooks, trips, etc, but that can't be helped. before too long, players would start to understand that it is in their best interest to stay on their skates. not only should they not dive, but they should do their best to play through whatever actual fouls occur. you call it like that through christmas or so and you'd start to see a different kind of NHL.

[terp]

I know you're going to say "of course" because I'm a Pens fan, but it's nice to see Aziz has it right. I get frustrated listening to Pens fans shout about the same types of plays you guys are. "Schenn's dive from the Asham crosscheck" as they call it. Yes in slow-motion you can see the stick never hits Schenn's throat. What I think the suspension was most deserved for was the punch when Schenn was down. THAT was uncalled for. I've spoken to Asham about it, actually, and he stated emphatically the stick never went above his shoulder pads. Regardless, I get frustrated too. I see Briere dive, Schenn last night took Malkin's shove and turned it into a spectacular swan dive behind the net, putting Malkin in the box... Coburn's sudden fall when his skate barely skips off Adam's in Game 4... let's face it... hockey is a contact sport. Stuff happens. But every team has players who embelish it. Every team has players who, like Aziz said, get away with more than others. Every team has players who can't even smile without getting two minutes. (i.e. Cooke when getting crosschecked repeatedly suddenly got a holding the stick penalty when he'd been penalized for having his stick held earlier as "hooking".) Crosby takes a beating from Flyers fans because he's a pansy or whatever some like to think. But the truth of it is he's a pure hockey talent, and he takes a LOAD of abuse that never gets called. ALL superstars whine to the refs. Yes, even Giroux. If a Pen talks to the refs it's whining, if a Flyer does it it's just discussing the play? It's the same across the board. ALL great players complained to refs because ALL great players have been clutched and grabbed by lesser players every game. And for the record, the "elbow" to Grossman looks more like a high shoulder to me. The concussion came from Kennedy hitting him earlier. I agree if Grossman had stayed down they may have reviewed it, but even the Flyers management didn't complain to the league about it, with Grossman "reportedly" saying it was negligible contact. I can't find that anywhere to confirm it, was said on NHL radio.

Aziz it's great to see a Flyer's fan who is a true fan of hockey, not just the home team. I don't think there are many of us out there anymore who really try to look at things without, in your team's case, orange tinted lenses.

It is apparent you didn't bother to look at this:

http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/46849-VIDEO-Brendan-Shanahan-explains-Arron-Ashams-fourgame-suspension.html

Shanahan specifically says the stick didn't hit Schenn in the throat and that Asham was suspended for taking several strides into Schenn before hitting him high with the stick and punching him while he was down. This was interpreted by the league as intent to injure another player. You may want to do a little research before you post in the future. So far as the notion that it was nothing more than a dive by Schenn, only Pens' fans and a few outliers like aziz think so.

It is amusing that a Pens fan would call out anyone for diving when Letang, Malkin, and to a slightly lesser extent Crosby are the masters. Letang dove and was assessed an unsportsmanlike earlier in the series for his dive; I have to give him high marks for being alert enough to even think about diving while he was arguing that he had just scored a goal. That's the sign of a true master. Malkin dove last night in the first period when he was checked in the slot by Couturier and Crosby dove and got up looking around for the official when Schenn tapped him in the last regular season game. Sure, there are players on teams around the league who dive but that doesn't mean the Pens don't have more of them than anyone else.

"Everyone else does it" is maybe the all time favorite excuse of human beings. It has been used even more than usual during the last week by the Pens and their fans but that doesn't change the fact that the North American hockey press (including in Pittsburgh) has been all over Crosby for his whining and general bad behavior. It isn't a coincidence that Giroux and Briere aren't getting singled out like Crosby because they aren't serial whiners. So far as Crosby being pure hockey talent, that's true, which is why he should STFU, play the game and be a better teammate instead of throwing tantrums, starting scrums and making his teammates clean up his messes. He should also stop granting interviews to whine about how much he hates the other team. What other NHL captain does that? Predictably, he excuses his bad behavior by arguing that the other team is just as bad and ends up looking like a tool both on and off the ice.

I've been amused by how Pens fans routinely come onto this and other Flyers' boards to convince us that the Pens are the good guys and to excuse the crap they pull with a lot of bogus arguments. Malkin has been putting his shoulder in to people's heads for years and it is no accident. He got Wayne Simmonds a couple seasons ago and last night Sean Couturier was fortunate to get away with only a glancing blow to the head when Malkin blindsided him. He's very good at it and he'll do it whenever the opportunity presents itself, as it did when he got Grossmann the other night (by the way, it is perhaps not by coincidence that Matt Cooke ended Marc Savard's career two years ago with a similar though more clumsy and obviously deliberate high hit). You're right that Grossman may have been injured when Kennedy hit him, but that was a high hit too. So now we're talking about several incidents and four different Pens players who have delivered high hits in this series (Asham, Neal twice in the same shift, Malkin and Kennedy). Some people might see a deliberate pattern though at the very least it is indicative of a team that doesn't show much respect for opponents. So based just upon what I've seen in the last 7 Flyers-Pens games, I'd say the Pens deserve their reputation for high and otherwise dirty hits. PS: You also don't know that the Flyers didn't complain about Malkin's or for that matter Kennedy's hit on Grossmann. They might not announce it to the press, especially given the atmosphere in this playoff, so you can't assume that they were OK with it and excuse it on that basis.

Like I said earlier, I can't understand why you guys continue to feel the need to come on this and other Flyers boards every spring to straighten us out and essentially whine about the bad press your team is receiving all over North America. It isn't our fault your team has a lousy reputation. But at the very least, if you are going come on here to complain, have the facts at your disposal instead of, for example, spouting off about how unjust Asham's suspension was without even having bothered to find out why he was suspended. Your post has a saving virtue though, its good irony value, because you end by complimenting a poster for objectivity, something you don't appear to be capable of yourself. Don't feel bad though, a lack of objectivity is common among Pens fans.

[Polaris922]

Apparently you didn't read what I posted. I AGREED with the Asham suspension BECAUSE of the punch when he was down. I never said the league felt the stick hit him in the throat, I said I get frustrated by Pens fans who called it "Schenn's dive from the Asham crosscheck". I'm not just calling Flyers players out for diving. I call them ALL out. My point was that, as I said, EVERY team has divers. I think somewhere along the line some players decide it's worth the conduct to get their team a man advantage, and it's disgusting. WHEN ANYONE DOES IT. Pens, Flyers, I don't care who. I don't think you read what I posted with untainted eyes. As for Crosby being singled out, I've found it's only when they play serious Atlantic Division rivals such as yourselves or the Rangers. That's pretty much the only time we hear it, and it spreads quickly. Again I never claimed the Pens are the good guys and make excuses for their antics. I simply said they're no different than any other team in that regard, and I certainly never made excuses for it. It disgusts me as a fan more than it will ever disgust any Flyers fan. I was agreeing with a lot said here, especially Aziz's perspective. Thanks for replying, I just wish you would read what I typed next time without assuming I'm a "homer". And save your insults for the kids on your block, I came here thinking I might be participating in an intelligent conversation about an issue I googled "Malkin hit on Grossman", and this is what I get.

[Polaris922]

Minus the thinly veiled mockery, good post. I agree, there are Flyers that dive and embellish. Some feel the game and match it for "strategy", others like Briere and formerly Carcillo are especially despicable. No honor at all. I will say though that little guys getting hit from significantly bigger guys doesn't always appear fake to me. Catch them at a bad angle on a near zero friction surface and away they go. I know they are all supposed to be pros and awesome skaters, but Hartnell just learned how to skate this season.

If refs called diving, and sometimes not the embellished act, this crap would stop very quickly.

Sorry Doom if it seemed to be mocking at all. My mockery was more for the Pens and Flyers fans alike that think every little thing is a penalty. I sit in my seats sometimes arguing with the so called "fans" around me who think every little piece of contact is a penalty. Makes me sick to hear sometimes...

[doom88]

Sorry Doom if it seemed to be mocking at all. My mockery was more for the Pens and Flyers fans alike that think every little thing is a penalty. I sit in my seats sometimes arguing with the so called "fans" around me who think every little piece of contact is a penalty. Makes me sick to hear sometimes...

And that is another issue in my opinion. New fans come in and see ten penalties called a game and think that's normal. It wasn't at one point in time. If the refs call fewer penalties and teams play more five on five, fans will appreciate the team play more than the power play. They will also have a better appreciation of the severe disadvantage the PK is.

[sarsippius]

I sit in my seats sometimes arguing with the so called "fans" around me who think every little piece of contact is a penalty.

@Polaris922

Yeah, I do a bit of that myself. But it is a natural human reaction to perceive transgressions against oneself while explaining away one's own sins.....that said, I do think Malkin is the dirtiest prik on either team in this series, but we can save that for another time. Welcome aboard.

[terp]

Apparently you didn't read what I posted. I AGREED with the Asham suspension BECAUSE of the punch when he was down. I never said the league felt the stick hit him in the throat, I said I get frustrated by Pens fans who called it "Schenn's dive from the Asham crosscheck". I'm not just calling Flyers players out for diving. I call them ALL out. My point was that, as I said, EVERY team has divers. I think somewhere along the line some players decide it's worth the conduct to get their team a man advantage, and it's disgusting. WHEN ANYONE DOES IT. Pens, Flyers, I don't care who. I don't think you read what I posted with untainted eyes. As for Crosby being singled out, I've found it's only when they play serious Atlantic Division rivals such as yourselves or the Rangers. That's pretty much the only time we hear it, and it spreads quickly. Again I never claimed the Pens are the good guys and make excuses for their antics. I simply said they're no different than any other team in that regard, and I certainly never made excuses for it. It disgusts me as a fan more than it will ever disgust any Flyers fan. I was agreeing with a lot said here, especially Aziz's perspective. Thanks for replying, I just wish you would read what I typed next time without assuming I'm a "homer". And save your insults for the kids on your block, I came here thinking I might be participating in an intelligent conversation about an issue I googled "Malkin hit on Grossman", and this is what I get.

Fair point re your comment about Asham but you said some conflicting things (disagreed that it was merely a dive, agreed with aziz, who thought it was embellished, and confirmed with Asham that the stick never hit Schenn's throat) and this threw me off. I'm still saying however that at least thus far, there is more diving and more targeted high hits coming from the Pens. There is absolutely more whining. So I'm not ready to subscribe to the idea that "everyone does it to the same degree).

[canoli]

it was clear from the very first shift of gm1 that the penguins were targeting grossmanN

It's been clear from the beginning the Pens would "target" our best players. Couturier has been extremely effective against Malkin so Couts gets lined up. G is our star so he gets run. Grossmann is our big body on D so he's targeted. No mystery what the strategy is.

I just wish they were targeting Bryzgalov...cuz that would mean - well you get the idea.

[mojo1917]

@canoli

LOL

[TedZep]

The topic being Malkin's elbow to Grossman's head, what do the Apologists have to say about THAT other than "Look over there! Schenn!"?

[canoli]

I can guess what Shanahan would accept from Malkin - something along the lines of -

Malkin:

"The chicken-wing kept me from losing my balance. I didn't see Grossmann's head there. I was only trying to keep my balance. I might've been called for interference or charging for slamming into Grossmann, who was there at the time, though I didn't know he was there at the time. Ya follow?"

Shanahan:

"I follow. No suspension. We want players to keep their balance on the ice. Obviously you didn't want to take a bad penalty so you were forced to use Grossmann's head to keep you on your skates. It's a shame it cost a player a concussion but it's perfectly understandable why you had to do it."

[aziz]

Shanahan specifically says the stick didn't hit Schenn in the throat and that Asham was suspended for taking several strides into Schenn before hitting him high with the stick and punching him while he was down. This was interpreted by the league as intent to injure another player. You may want to do a little research before you post in the future. So far as the notion that it was nothing more than a dive by Schenn, only Pens' fans and a few outliers like aziz think so.

you are both stating and then missing the point. if we can all agree that the stick did not, in fact, catch schenn in the throat...then what happened that kept him laying on the ice for 3 or 4 minutes? i'm sure he was shaken up, it was a big and ugly hit he took. i'm also sure he took his time down there, and the trainer probably told him to take some extra. and why not? asham made a stupidly dangerous run at schenn, might as well make sure every one got a couple of good looks at it before letting the game move on. he didn't dive, but he also didn't do his utmost to return to his skates. he took his time, made a point of letting everyone's mind wander as to how bad the contact was...and then returned to play shortly thereafter, because in the end, he was just fine. and i have no problem with that. none at all.

i do have a problem with fans of one team being ok with that from their guys, but condeming other teams' players for the same gamesmanship. what's crazy and annoying is that if we didn't have schenn's example literally one game before whoever that was i initially reponded to posted, you people would claim the flyers never do that stuff. that they are entirely and utterly honest players who would never ever dare to do something as disgusting as play a situation like that up. we do have the example, though, and now you are going through all kind of contortions to try to explain why it didn't happen the way it obviously happened. that schenn really was hurt so bad he had to lay on the ice thrashing about for minutes, had to be examined in place by the trainer, and had to be assisted to the lockerroom, but magically and completely recovered moments later....and all of it was entirely on the up-and-up.

and, again, i think it's natural to have that reaction in the moment. we like the flyers, we don't like the penguins. the flyers are awesome great guys and the penguins are scumbags to a one (at least until one of them signs with the flyers, then he stops being a scumbag and becomes awesome). to be able to see things through such filtered lenses hours and days afterwards, to actually be able to argue against reality from a calm and collected place.... that's sad.

[terp]

you are both stating and then missing the point. if we can all agree that the stick did not, in fact, catch schenn in the throat...then what happened that kept him laying on the ice for 3 or 4 minutes? i'm sure he was shaken up, it was a big and ugly hit he took. i'm also sure he took his time down there, and the trainer probably told him to take some extra. and why not? asham made a stupidly dangerous run at schenn, might as well make sure every one got a couple of good looks at it before letting the game move on. he didn't dive, but he also didn't do his utmost to return to his skates. he took his time, made a point of letting everyone's mind wander as to how bad the contact was...and then returned to play shortly thereafter, because in the end, he was just fine. and i have no problem with that. none at all.

i do have a problem with fans of one team being ok with that from their guys, but condeming other teams' players for the same gamesmanship. what's crazy and annoying is that if we didn't have schenn's example literally one game before whoever that was i initially reponded to posted, you people would claim the flyers never do that stuff. that they are entirely and utterly honest players who would never ever dare to do something as disgusting as play a situation like that up. we do have the example, though, and now you are going through all kind of contortions to try to explain why it didn't happen the way it obviously happened. that schenn really was hurt so bad he had to lay on the ice thrashing about for minutes, had to be examined in place by the trainer, and had to be assisted to the lockerroom, but magically and completely recovered moments later....and all of it was entirely on the up-and-up.

and, again, i think it's natural to have that reaction in the moment. we like the flyers, we don't like the penguins. the flyers are awesome great guys and the penguins are scumbags to a one (at least until one of them signs with the flyers, then he stops being a scumbag and becomes awesome). to be able to see things through such filtered lenses hours and days afterwards, to actually be able to argue against reality from a calm and collected place.... that's sad.

The premise here is that Schenn's gamesmanship earned Asham the suspension and I understood that. It is valid if in fact Schenn was embellishing and/or the league cared about Schenn lying on the ice for a couple. Both of these are conjecture, so I'm not sure what else there is to say except maybe. At the time, i thought the high hit or the punch was enough to shake up a normal person.

The only other thing I can think of is that Schenn went down pretty easily and drew a penalty on Cooke today but it is a little early to say he's a serial diver like say Chris Letang. Briere dives, for sure. Can't think of any other current Flyer who dives other than Hartnell but as you know he doesn't control that.

[phlfly]

The premise here is that Schenn's gamesmanship earned Asham the suspension and I understood that. It is valid if in fact Schenn was embellishing and/or the league cared about Schenn lying on the ice for a couple. Both of these are conjecture, so I'm not sure what else there is to say except maybe. At the time, i thought the high hit or the punch was enough to shake up a normal person.

The only other thing I can think of is that Schenn went down pretty easily and drew a penalty on Cooke today but it is a little early to say he's a serial diver like say Chris Letang. Briere dives, for sure. Can't think of any other current Flyer who dives other than Hartnell but as you know he doesn't control that.

This is reason I bought his t-shirt.