A Carolina Hurricanes blog with occasional news about the rest of the NHL.

Sunday, March 05, 2006

bad news

Although the details are hazy at best, preliminary indicators point towards a "severe neck injury" for Erik Cole.

We knew nothing at all until about a half hour ago, when we heard that he had flown back to Raleigh. Then this report from TSN suggests that Cole will be out for upwards of two months.

I've been lurking on the Pens message boards this morning and afternoon. The overwhelming majority of those people are saying things like "Cole set himself up to get crushed", "Cole drove himself into the boards", and this complete asshole who says:
QUOTE(stanleyC @ Mar 5 2006, 12:44 AM)
Cole deserves what he got....he makes Floppa Forsberg look like an angel....can't understand though how 3 guys go after Brooks & only 1 draws a roughing minor?....
*


Since some of the details have developed, some of the Orpik defenders have changed their tune slightly, but there's still a prevailing "our player did nothing wrong" attitude.

I know that message boards are not the best place to find intellectual discourse, or the presentation of logical, sane ideas, but it really irks me that people are actually trying to blame Cole for that.

What I'm thinking is that the league will slap Orpik with a two game suspension. What I'm hoping is that they decide to send a message that careless, stupid playing like that will not be tolerated. I'm hoping for a double digit games suspension. It's not going to make Cole come back any quicker, but it'll hurt Orpik in the pocketbook and send a message.

More news as it comes.

3 comments:

Bill Purdy said...

Like the banner change...

While Cole has been the most consistently hard-working player on the team all year, I believe Ladd and the rest of the team can fill his shoes in the meantime and still contend for the President's Cup (especially with Vasicek coming back soon).

That said, Erik Cole is my favorite player on the team, and I am sickened at the potential implications of this injury. I hope we haven't seen the last of him on the ice. More importantly, I hope he's able to continue being a good father and husband to his family, without lingering pain or reduced ability to move.

Orpik, on the other hand... that jackass can start looking for work elsewhere, as far as I am concerned. I wonder what'd happen if he intentionally injured another Wal-Mart cashier?

Tom L said...

D-L,

That sucks. The Pens fans are reacting exactly like the Rangers fans did over the hits on Gagne and Connolly.

At one point I would have been happy for Darth Regier to try and pry Orpik from the Pens... no longer. I want that guy no where near our room.

Here's hoping the Cole pulls through this okay.

Ta,

Anonymous said...

Excellent, love it! » »

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