BOSTON, Mass – Reactions have been solicited from a number of sources including head coaches, players, and NHL Senior VP Mike Murphy on the Aaron Rome suspension and status of Nathan Horton.
This afternoon, Aaron Rome released a statement through the NHL offices. In the statement he offered his concern for Horton and his recovery.
“I want to express my concern for Nathan’s well being and wish him a quick and full recovery,” Rome stated. “I try to play this game honestly and with integrity. As someone who has experienced this type of injury I am well aware of its serious nature and have no desire for another player to experience it. I will not take away my teammates’ focus on the task at hand and intend to speak at an appropriate time in future.”
Earlier in the day both head coaches were quizzed for their reactions to the suspensions and the hit itself.
Bruins head coach Claude Julien was circumspect as his is demeanor in the playoffs this year.
Asked his reaction to the suspension Julien said, “Well, I don’t think I’ve ever changed my approach on that. I said all along, whether it was the first incident in this series, I like to leave things up to the NHL to rule on those things and you move on.”
“I don’t want that job, to be honest with you,” Julien added. “It’s a tough job. I’m one of those guys or one of those coaches that respects whatever they do. For people that thought I was disappointed with the Burrows thing, I wasn’t. I moved on.”
Julien also said he felt it was important for the whole league to protect its players.
“Again, I support them. Whether you agree or not, you support them. I support them with the Burrows decision and I’m supporting them with this one, as well.”
As might be expected Alain Vigneault was not entirely pleased and offered a hit in the San Jose series as an example of a missed call, where Rome was the target.
“Well, in my opinion, it’s not the right call,” Vigneault said. “We’ve had instances just in the San Jose series, and Aaron was the player, where he’s facing the board and he gets hit, there’s no suspension there.”
“Eager’s hit on Danny (Sedin) in my mind, where again he’s facing the board, doesn’t get hurt, could have serious consequences. In my opinion, those were two suspendable offenses that weren’t,” Vigneault added.
Citing Monday’s incident as “very unfortunate“, Vigneault said he was disappointed that the player (Horton) “got hurt.”
“But it was a north/south play. It was a little bit late,” Vigneault said in a practice day press conference. “But anybody that’s played this game knows that you have to make a decision in a fraction of a second. He’s engaged in the hit. I don’t know how the league could come up with that decision really.”
When asked to walk through his ruling, Senior VP for Hockey Operations, Mike Murphy recounted his decision-making process.
“I probably viewed it like most of you did. I thought it was a late hit. I thought that the body was contacted. But I also thought that the head was hit,” Murphy said. “It caused a serious injury to Nathan Horton. So the key components are: the late hit, which I had it close to a second late. We have our own formula at NHL Hockey Operations for determining late hits, and it was late. We saw the seriousness of the injury with Nathan on the ice last night.”
“That’s basically what we deliberated on. We tried to compare it with some of the other ones in the past. But it stands alone. It’s why we made the ruling,” Murphy added in a press conference today.
Asked about the decision to suspend Rome for the remainder of the series and the impact on the player and the Vancouver team, Murphy was clear in his viewing the entire affair as being serious.
“I take it very seriously, very seriously,” Murphy said defending the decision. “Aaron Rome is an important part of the Vancouver team. Guys play all their lives to get to this series on both teams, and you might never get back. So I take it very seriously.”
“That’s all I can say. I do not make light of this. I wish I wasn’t sitting here. I wish Aaron was playing, and I wish Nathan was playing,” he added.
Reports from several news outlets have stated that Nathan Horton was released from the Massachusetts General Hospital and permitted to return home. His long road to recovery begins today.
For Aaron Rome, his season is over for the want of a late hit that was clearly more than a late hit despite the “north-south” references. Replays show he left the ice surface in delivering the late hit that made contact with Horton’s body, shoulder and head.
What was not evident in Rome’s statement was assumption of his responsibility for the hit or his actions Monday night.
And to paint the NHL into a deeper corner, Daniel Sedin said that the players disagree with the call.
“Yeah, I mean, we totally disagree. We support Rome,” Daniel Sedin said. “He’s a hard-working guy. He has no intention to hurt anyone out there. At the same time you never want to see a guy (Horton) leave the ice like that.”
The NHL opted not to suspend Alexandre Burrows for a biting incident in game one of the series as they deemed it unintentional. Daniel Sedin seemed comfortable saying “(Rome) has no intention to hurt anyone.”
Regardless of intent or not, Horton is out of the series nursing a severe concussion and Rome is assured of returning to his livelihood in the 2011-12 season. Contact Lou.Lafrado@prohockeynews.com
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