You obviously are not an hockey player. I’m not saying Kostopoulos doesn’t deserve to be punished — I want these kind of hits to stop too — but he had a lot of speed on that shot (so he couldn’t just brake it up) and you can clearly see Ryn looking behind him, seeing him come towards him and changing direct in the last minute. It sucks and it’s very sad that it had to end up the way it did, but if Ryn went left instead of right, it would have been a normal [hard] hit. He kinda asked for it. You know, people hate hearing this, but once you get in the NHL, you’re a *PRO*. That doesn’t just mean “skate fast, pass, score”. It also means you need to know how to take hits, because you ARE going to get ‘em. Ryn saw him and pretty much let himself get rammed. In other words, Kostopoulos did hit him from behind, which is wrong and deserves to be punished, but Ryn put himself in a position where he let himself get hurt. Same thing happened to Kostityin (from the Canadiens, the irony!) a few weeks ago — he got hit while he was looking somewhere else and made himself vulnerable — and I don’t remember everybody making a HUGE deal about it as with this one… oh and I guess that the writer being a complete Toronto fanboy doesn’t help. Like the leafs are saints… lolz.

Its not the point who the Leafs have on the team. The onus is on the guy who chased him all the way down the ice and into the boards and never let up for one second until he had hit him. It was a dirty hit… do you think Laraque would have just stood by if he thought Kostopolous didn’t deserve at least a couple of knocks from Colaiacovo?

he turned to handle the puck, don’t use that as an excuse for a dirty hit

When Laraque won’t stick up for you, you deserve what you’re getting.

Whoa wait are you saying that Laraque needed to step in and stop Carlo “mr. glass” Coliacavo? haha Kostopolous regretted it that’s why he didn’t fight back. If he did indeed fight back Carlo would be back on the injured reserve.

If you look closely, or try and slow it down, it seems like Kostopolous almost leaves his feet as he makes the hit. That combined with lifting his arms up a bit makes for a pretty f’ed up hit if you ask me. Granted, it wouldn’t have been so bad if Van Ryn positioned himself better, but it still is a dirty hit.

Van Ryn didn’t play that smartly, it’s always dangerous to keep your back towards someone coming in to hit you (he saw Kostopoulos). That seems to have become a tactic recently, turning your back towards the opposing player in the hope he won’t hit you. Problem is, it leaves you in a dangerous and vulnerable position.But seeing as Van Ryn had his back towards Kostopoulos the whole time, he had plenty of time to decide how he was going to play him. And since he decided to crush him from behind, he deserves some sort of suspension (a game or 2).

Even worse is when someone gets mad that a guy gets checked when he’s bent over with his head towards the boards.You’re playing hockey morons! Play safe or don’t bitch when you get ***** hurt!

He shouldn’t have hit him that hard from behind, if he was along the boards then fine squash the guy. Since he wasn’t along the boards, he should have slowed down enough to just push him into the boards. It was a cheap and dangerous hit.

At the very last second you can see him turning his back to Kostopoulos. Rules are rules and he should be suspended, but Van Ryn isn’t completely innocent either.

Whats the deal with all the hockey articles, eh?

Hockey rules!!

That title and description made very little sense to me before I realized it was about hockey.

Who cares?

133 people and counting

I was at the game and the hit from behind was a total bitch move. But then again, the Canadiens were acting like bitches the whole night and got spanked 6-3.Go Leafs Go!

#2 never turn your back to a hit. #3 don’t hit someone in the numbers.

#4 into the boards when they’re bent over.

I’m thinking somewhere around a 3 game suspension, that was a dangerous hit.

Hockey is for dick slurpers.

…

I’m a Canadians fan and I think that was a chicken sh!t play. I think Kostopoulos should get 3 games as the league has to crack down on this sort of thing and make it safe for D men to go back and get the puck. That being said, Van Ryn has to be smarter and take care of himself in those situations

Uh, ‘if Van Ryn Scored’???He was behind his own net, getting a dump in. It wasn’t even an icing call, which is why we haven’t had anyone yelling for no-touch icing yet in this thread.It was a hit that got the penalty it deserved. Rule number 1 - don’t show your numbers to a guy barrelling in on you. If Van Ryn hadn’t turned, and Kosto did nothing different, but delivered a solid check, this might still have made the front page of digg, for an awesome rub-out check. If you can’t take a check, don’t cowardly turn your back on the guy so he won’t hit you, cause he might still hit you, and you’ll be in a world of hurt.

My work proxy is blocking that site, so here’s a youtube link to the hit: youtube.com/watch?v=ZNJ3X9tHqf0

On a sort of unrelated topic: don’t you love how Don Cherry is so old and lazy that he mispronounces/slurs together everyone’s name?

What is Hockey?

Half visor? What about a full cage? I can’t count the amount of times my face has been saved by my cage from deflected shots, high sticks and skating with my head down. The pros claim they can see better, but there are plenty of other sports that require a face cage and they see fine. There may or may not be an advantage to exposing your face, but certainly staying healthy to play has got to be an advantage over being on the disabled list for a face injury.

That hit made me cringe.

Not exactly a death-dealing blow. I don’t know about any more than a 3-5 game suspension. Definitely needs to stop, however.On another note I am pleased to see all these hockey stories on digg.

First time in a long time, possibly ever, that I wish Domi was still with the Leafs to rough that bitch up. Like the old days: youtube.com/watch?v=VnKxV9ilsqo

I love how you post the sucker punch incident in response to this hit by Kosto, when the guy saw him coming and knew he was gonna get hit.I’m used to go to Domi’s games when he played for the Pete’s. He was a tool then. He’s a tool now.

I am sorry, what sport is this?

i am going to agree with a lot of the previous posters. Kostopoulos should have let as he could probably see that Van Ryn was turning. However, Van Ryn put himself in a very compromising position by first turning and also by stopping where he did, which looked like a foot or more from the boards. That is a very dangerous place to put yourself, especially when you know someone is bearing down on you.

Big hit? Yes. Dirty? No.Van Ryn put himself in a dangerous position even though he knew the other guy was right behind him coming in full speed… he tried to fake he was going to keep going around the net and decided to turn at the last second, there was no avoiding that hit. The 5 minute penalty and perhaps a 1 game suspension is all that’s needed, as there was no intention to hurt behind that check. Van Ryn only has himself to blame for that injury.

One of the first things kids playing hockey learn is to protect themselves, Van Ryn failed to do so and paid the price. If he had kept going and positioned himself to take the incoming hit, there wouldn’t even be any injury. We’re talking less than a second for Kostopoulos to react and avoid hitting Van Ryn, it was unavoidable really.

is there still really an nhl?

A hit from behind, 3-4 feet out, into the end boards is always bad. See Travis Roy. You can still make contact and take the puck without plastering the guy.

He’s had a rough season hasn’t he? youtube.com/watch?v=JWqgizAD4FA

The posts admonishing Van Ryn for ‘putting himself in a bad position’ are pretty sickening. NHL players put themselves in similar positions on a regular basis, and get nothing more than a solid shove into the glass. First of all, Kostopoulos should have been slowing down as he neared the glass. Second, he should have absorbed some of the impact with his body instead of channeling all of his momentum into his shoulder with a very harsh cross-check.

Deliberate attempt to injure. 5 game suspension would be called for and I’m a Habs fan.

That hit looked very similar to the Bergeron hit that put him out for a whole season at the beginning of last year. I love hitting as much as the next guy, but when you’re flying at somebody from behind when they’re at the boards, there’s no reason to nail the guy like that. There used to be a certain code of honor where players don’t nail people from behind in those situations, but I can see it’s fading away…

Van Ryn has been getting owned this year by other teams. First the through the glass hit now this one.

LOL typical Toronto Maple Leaf fan. Although unfortunate and a suspension was deserved the guy never showed any such behavior before. If players are stupid enough to turn at the last moment like Van Ryn did things like this are going to continue to happen.