Liambas is charging in from the blueline. Yes, Fanelli turns but Liambas was looking to destroy him anyway. The helmet doesn’t pop off because he’s wearing it incorrectly but because of the violence of the hit.

@glgbill is bang on. Liambas was going in with the intention to absolutely destroy Fanelli and both were unlucky that Fanelli turned at the last second. At the end of the day, like Bob McKenzie said, this hit wasn’t a hockey play so much as an attempt to hit someone as hard as possible.

It sucks for Liambas because he’d never get this kind of penalty in the NHL or if he was a star player but at the end of the day he’s a nobody overager and it’s easy to send a message with him.

Hits of that type have nothing to do with separating a player from the puck, and everything to do with injuring another player. How much “injury” is intended? Enough to take a player off his game, to intimidate him or his teammates, or knock a guy out for a few shifts or for the rest of the game. Liambas never attempted to end a player’s career, but he did attempt all of the above. Sometimes, though, things go awry.

The punishment fits the outcome.

I live in the Kitchener-Waterloo region and I am an avid hockey fan and long time hockey player. I am in no way a Rangers fan (I don’t even follow the OHL much at all). I went to my first OHL game in about 10 years last Friday on a whim, mostly because my friend had free tickets. This obviously means I saw the hit that could very well serve as a career-ender for both Liambas and Fanelli. I’m going to try and weigh in on what I saw in an as unbiased fashion as possible.

Here is what I saw:
Before the hit I actually had my eye on Liambas. He was easily the fastest skater on the ice for the short moment. As things started to unfold I could tell a brutal hit was about to follow. My first observation here is that Liambas had Fanelli in his sights from just inside the blue line, he accelerated full speed at his target for quite a few strides.

As quick as the crowd gasped at the intensity of the hit, there was utter silence. For a few seconds, Fanelli’s face was shown on the scoreboard displays (complete with pool of blood). What followed was about 40mins of feeling sick to my stomach/worried about the situation (and from what I hear mostly everyone felt that way at the Aud). The rest of the game was lacking in physical presence (understandable). Throughout the game, the hardcore Rangers fans were calling for blood, mad at the refs, etc. (just highly emotional). The cleanup afterwards was disgusting to say the least, I feel bad for parents who had brought their kids that night.

That’s how I saw it, it has something that has stuck with me for just under a week now. My honest opinion is that the media is making faulty judgements regarding the hits nature. It was vicious, there is no way around it. Of course Liambas wasn’t out to break bones or cause anything near the kind of trauma that Fanelli has been recovering from, but the point stands that he caused it.

If you beat someone up with the intent of teaching them a lesson and giving them some bruises to remind them of it, you may have to deal with our legal system (and may receive a criminal record). If that person ends up dying from their injuries, you are charged with manslaughter. This is how our nation deals with violence (i.e. sentencing is a combination of result and intent). Liambas clearly did not intend on hurting Fanelli this way, but he provided the vicious blow to cause it. If the hit wasn’t into the metal separating panes of glass, we wouldn’t be hear discussing this. It is horrible luck for all parties involved, I just don’t understand those complaining about Liambas’ season-ending suspension. This is the way we work people, get with the program. I highly doubt Liambas would have mentally up to the task of playing competitively again based on what those close to him have said regarding his state of mind anyways.

In summary: sentencing is based on a combination of result and intent. Had Liambas’ intent been different, I’m sure he’d be answering to the legal system himself right now.

Hockey is no different that football. The mentality when a player hits another is the hurt him, not injury them, but to hurt them enough to make him think twice about handling the puck or football again. As well,