Andrew Shaw flips off ref, yells gay slurs

[yave1964]

Lets be clear, Andrew Shaw, in my mind is an absolute moron. Whether it is biting Victor Hedman or his constant acting as if his team is being treated unfairly no matter the situation, he skates around as if he is suffering from short mans disease, constantly looking around as if someone is treating him unfairly.

  He had a rep as a solid player coming up, the truth is he is a 15 goal a year guy who is not good enough to play top six, not fast enough to kill penalties, not really a center, he is a third line banger who because he LOOKS like he should be better than he is, even a brilliant coach like Quennevile gets fooled by his non talented rear end because he plays loud and calls attention to himself. But every time he gets to play big minutes, he fails. He is simply a third line banger, nothing more, like a hundred just like him. The only reason anyone knows who he is comes down to the fact that the Hawks are always in it (in spite of Shaw, not because of him) and he is loud. A poor mans Sean Avery if you will.

  Now, he finally did something that Avery would envy.

 

First after shoving Bouwmeester into the goalie from behind after the whistle he received a crosschecking penalty that anyone in the arena could have called but Shaw acted as if the official had stolen his icecream, giving the ref the double bird on the way to the penalty box.

  After not being ejected for that stupidity, he doubled down, smacking the butt end of his stick against the glass to get the attention of the official and then twice calling him a homophobic slur. (An aside I debated on writing what the moron said, but out of respect for HF I figured anyone wanting to look it up, it is everywhere and easy to find.

  Shaw of course, immediately after the game said he could not remember what was said, who said what, only that the ref had blown the call. He even repeated his statement about forgetting what he or anyone else may or may not have said.

  IMHO just going to the penalty box with the double bird flying is suspension worthy, throwing in the gay slurs exasperates it.

  I get the frustration with his team going down 3 games to 1. I get the frustration with his lousy, consistently inconsistent play. But this crap has zero business in the game.

  I was on two Blackhawk sites that pointed out the Wayne Simmonds anti-gay slurs the lip readers picked up a few years ago and pointing out that he faced no discipline, but this seems different somehow. Maybe it is because I detest Andrew Shaw and wish him ill will and therefor have an admitted bias against his untalented person. Playing on a line with Toews most of the year and scoring 30 something points, jeez, anyone could do that.

  So I put in a poll, does he deserve a suspension? Opinions?

[Hose Head]

Pushing Bouwmeester into the net is one thing that should definitely be looked into as definitely unsportsmanlike and he probably won't get suspensed for that. Now for flipping off the Refs and the Gay Slurs is a whole other story. There is no denying that he did flip off the Refs. The harder thing for the NHL to determine is if Andrew Shaw said the slur or not. If the NHL can't get 100% proof and Shaw lies about it then really what can they do. The NHL's hands would be tied in that situation.

[yave1964]

22 minutes ago, Hose Head said:

Pushing Bouwmeester into the net is one thing that should definitely be looked into as definitely unsportsmanlike and he probably won't get suspensed for that. Now for flipping off the Refs and the Gay Slurs is a whole other story. There is no denying that he did flip off the Refs. The harder thing for the NHL to determine is if Andrew Shaw said the slur or not. If the NHL can't get 100% proof and Shaw lies about it then really what can they do. The NHL's hands would be tied in that situation.

I love that he said that he cannot remember what he said in the heat of the moment, that he was upset over the ref blowing the call and giving him a penalty. I guess in his warped view whatever he said was all the refs fault somehow.

  Like I said, the Simmonds slur incident has been mentioned in numerous places. I think it is gutless to say what he said but even more so to try to put the blame for it, while saying he does not remember, on someone else. Hopefully the double bird will be enough for the league to act.

  I have always detested Shaw. I do not mind a guy like Marchand or Simmonds who yaps constantly but cannot back it up is less than worthless to me. He cant score consistently, 39 points is his career high in spite of elite teammates. He is too little to be a consistent checker, too slow to be a good P/K guy. He handles faceoffs in a way that make you wish he was a winger. He has just enough talent to frustrate, he is given one role after another on an elite team and fails at each. I have no idea how he has a job in the NHL on a real team.

[JagerMeister]

Deserving of a fine, homophobic slur or not. That was just the icing on the cake.

[JagerMeister]

1 hour ago, Hose Head said:

Pushing Bouwmeester into the net is one thing that should definitely be looked into as definitely unsportsmanlike and he probably won't get suspensed for that. Now for flipping off the Refs and the Gay Slurs is a whole other story. There is no denying that he did flip off the Refs. The harder thing for the NHL to determine is if Andrew Shaw said the slur or not. If the NHL can't get 100% proof and Shaw lies about it then really what can they do. The NHL's hands would be tied in that situation.

Who cares about the slur. This is language commonly used by athletes in sports, and in the context in which it is applied in, certainly isn't used to disparage homosexuals. Suspending him for THAT reason is frivolous. 

[Hose Head]

1 minute ago, JagerMeister said:

Who cares about the slur. This is language commonly used by athletes in sports, and in the context in which it is applied in, certainly isn't used to disparage homosexuals. Suspending him for THAT reason is frivolous. 

Apparently the NHL cares enough about it to investigate what he said. I myself think knocking his opponent after the play into the net deserves a suspension more, but it seems like the NHL is making a much bigger stink about the finger gesture and the slur.

[JagerMeister]

3 minutes ago, Hose Head said:

Apparently the NHL cares enough about it to investigate what he said. I myself think knocking his opponent after the play into the net deserves a suspension more, but it seems like the NHL is making a much bigger stink about the finger gesture and the slur.

Well if they didn't. There would be headlines on how someone went unpunished for regurgitating homophobic slurs. People would be on their ass.

[Hose Head]

1 minute ago, JagerMeister said:

Well if they didn't. There would be headlines on how someone went unpunished for regurgitating homophobic slurs. People would be on their ass.

That is true. I guess it's damned if you do and damned if you don't. The bottom line is something has to be done.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Shaw is an agitator. I don't think anyone denies that.

In that regard he is GOOD at what he does. And yes, I do believe he is a pretty decent hockey player as well. But being an agitator is the reason he has employment with the Hawks, and it is HIS JOB to act indignant when calls don't go his way, get under the skin of EVERYONE at the arena (but maintain being loved by his hometown fans), and generally cause mayhem.

 

But even with all that, it is hard to condone, or even understand the gesturing and the slurring.

About the slurring:  I am pretty sure he DID. In fact, before the news made a big deal about it, before I logged on this morning here, before I read this thread, I clearly remember watching him being put into the penalty box as the game was going on and I happened to be reading lips and my thought was , "Oh boy...did he just use the f-word followed by the anti-gay f-word??"

And if lil ol me who really wasn't looking for that spotted that, then you can bet the NHL, with the uproar about it NOW, will definitely see it.

 

What ISN'T proven is who it was directed at (player, official....or believe it or not, just general usage out loud due to the situation with no one in particular), but still, if this is an image thing the NHL is concerned about, then Shaw may have a problem.

 

I get NHL players are VERY emotional on the ice and they sometimes say and do things without thinking.........problem is, some guys tend to do the "not thinking" part quite a bit more than others.

 

And in this day and age, tv cameras, social media cams, and all other manner of 'monitoring' what goes on in any given sporting event, it is very hard to say or do anything undetected.

 

Shaw simply needed to check himself in this situation, and he did not. What his team needs now more than ever, is cohesion, and some smarter hockey played on the ice. Not a side show...unfortunately, that is what he will be providing now for his team down 3-1 in the series.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

From NBC Sports:

 

http://nhl.nbcsports.com/2016/04/20/shaw-apologizes-for-insensitive-remarks-hawks-say-theyre-extremely-disappointed/

 

Hey, progress!

At least Shaw himself realized what a twit he was being.

 

Sounds like what happened on the ice WAS emotionally fueled.

Not condoning it by any stretch, and there IS no excuse for it (Shaw even said so himself), but at least it is understandable how he could have reached that point.

 

I still say Andrew Shaw is an annoying, grating, acid-like irritant to all who play against him on the ice (and I LOVE IT when some other hockey player checks him into oblivion), but I must say, the 'respect quotient' just went up a bit for Shaw in light of his owning up to what he did and making no excuses for himself.

Whether his arm was 'twisted' or not by the Blackhawks, no one will ever really know, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt here and say he truly regrets his actions.

 

Good for you, Shaw. Glad you manned up.

I STILL am gonna love seeing a Wild player light him up on the ice during any given game next season, but I give him credit for not further complicating things by trying to point fingers or make sorry arsed excuses for his actions.

[aziz]

3 hours ago, Hose Head said:

Now for flipping off the Refs and the Gay Slurs is a whole other story. There is no denying that he did flip off the Refs. The harder thing for the NHL to determine is if Andrew Shaw said the slur or not. If the NHL can't get 100% proof and Shaw lies about it then really what can they do. The NHL's hands would be tied in that situation.

 

 

i wouldn't have a real problem with lowering the bar on "abuse of officials" calls.  a pissed off guy with a few choices words to say is one thing, but if someone makes a production out of it like shaw did, regardless of the words, let him take a game or two to calm down.

[yave1964]

Word is in that he got one game. Truthfully, it sounds about right.

[Hose Head]

2 hours ago, yave1964 said:

Word is in that he got one game. Truthfully, it sounds about right.

It does sound about right. NHL had to do something because if they would have sat on there hands on this you can count on it there would have been a big uproar by the gay and lesbian community. I think the NHL did the right thing.

[FD19372]

I know I'm late in commenting on this but I heard the  comment from one of Shaw's teammates that he's an emotional player. I get that. I also know he is held in high regard as a PROFESSIONAL athlete. So, I think the he's "emotional" stuff is crap.  Also, Shaw is FAR from a rookie, and a grown man. He knows what is expected.  It was bad enough for him to flip off the refs in front of a lot of kids at the game who are impressionable. Then to make matters worse, he says something totally offensive and unacceptable.  Maybe kids do that kind of stuff themselves or aren't raised right or whatever and maybe they don't, but a pro athlete looked up to shouldn't.  Whether he meant for it to offend homosexuals or not, or just to tick off the refs or his opponent doesn't matter. If you're the NHL trying to sell the game to ALL audiences, it can't be tolerated. It shouldn't be tolerated, anyway. He is very fortunate to not be given several more games than he was.