Originally posted.... 18 weeks ago
Patrice Cormier.
Patrice Cormier is a hockey player, currently with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies of the QMJHL. He captained Canada to Silver in the World Junior Championships, which took place earlier in the year. Whilst at the WJC, he made the following two elbows:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp0lNdmqfpY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hzeOhL8_9g
Note that in both cases they happened when he was going off for a line change. To throw an unprovoked elbow like that is one thing, to do it right when you're about to go on the bench is a whole different level of goonery. Flash forward to the 17th of January, in a QMJHL game against the Quebec Ramparts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqBHlA9Yp3I (warning, what happens after the elbow is thrown nearly made me sick)
Now I don't know what happened in the game before these incidents. Normally when something like this happens, it had some history in the game, but there are ways to go about this. Not throwing elbows into unsuspected peoples faces. Particularly in the case of the Jan 17th hit, where (someone, not sure where the source for this is) said this of the elbowee:
"He's feeling well given the circumstances. He has a traumatic brain injury, he almost died tonight. Several scans were made to make sure he didn't have anything major to his brain. Good news is that he's got no oedema (accumulation of water in his brain). The shock was so big that the diagnostic places him between a severe concussion and a brain death."
Being an Avalanche fan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz9RE9RGrVY ) i'm always going to be rather hard on players who make disgusting plays like this, but what Cormier did is assault. Nothing less, and Patrick Roy (Ramparts coach) is pressing charges as such. He's also been suspended indefinately by the QMJHL, and I hope he gets the book thrown at him. To be a 19 year old hockey player at this level (a 2nd round pick for New Jersey in '08 ) and throwing potentially fatal elbows shows that either something bad happened in his development, or that he doesn't have the temprament to play hockey. Stuff like this makes me sick, and the image it presents for hockey is something which it desperately doesn't need. What it needs even less is the Devils GM coming out and saying there was nothing wrong with it:
Lamoriello said he made effort to speak to Cormier because of the talk of potential criminal charges and a suspension for the remainder of the season and the 19-year-old Moncton, New Brunswick native is doing OK.
Lamoriello does not believe that criminal charges or a suspension for the remainder of the season are warranted for the elbow.
“I’m not the judge and jury of things, but in my opinion this is not something that should be talked about,” Lamoriello said.
When I asked Lamoriello if Cormier would be eligible to play elsewhere if he is suspended for the remainder of the QMJHL season, he would not answer.
“I’d just hate to get into what he can and can’t do if, when and how (something happens),” Lamoriello said. “That’s not in my vocabulary.”
I don't know how Mikael Tam is right now, but things like this can take a players livliehood from him. It happened with Steve Moore, which is why I feel ill whenever I see Todd Bertuzzi play hockey. Let's hope the same mistake isn't made here.
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Sources:
http://blogs.northjersey.com/blogs/fireice/comments/lamoriello_cormier_elbow_not_worthy_of_criminal_charges/
http://www.lhjmq.qc.ca
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