Lot's of attention across the league this week due to perennial dbad of the year Patrick Kaleta's cheap shot on Brad Richards, Harry Zolnierczyk launching his shoulder right to the dome of Mike Lundin & Taylor Hall's knee to the balls of Cal Clutterbuck. Kaleta aside the other 2 guys don't have a bad rep yet but there's definitely a short list of dirty players. It's pretty bad when there's almost league wide unanimous opinion that the dirtiest players are Patrick Kaleta, Dan Carcillo, Matt Cooke & Raffi Torres. I personally agree and hate all these guys. I also hate guys like Steve Ott and PK Subban who always take minor dirty plays whenever possible but refuse to stand up and answer for it but I digress. The honest truth is that someone's going to end up crippled or dead if the dirty players aren't taken care of. Perfect example is that piece of shit Cook. Now it's debatable about weather or not he meant to cut Karlson's leg during a routine hit on the board but overall since he was warned to clean it up or get kicked out of the league he's made huge strides. Obviously I don't believe he is reformed but he plays much more within the lines now. As a Bruins fan I think Brad Marchand is another guy who has a history of playing too close to the edge and this year has done a great job of taking the dangerous plays out of his game. In contrast, I have no idea how Kaleta hasn't gotten the same warning or at least a lengthy suspension, 5 games is a joke for someone with his history after almost snapping Broadway Joe's neck in half. The pure honest truth is that hockey is a dangerous game, it's fast, guys are HUGE now, everyone has a stick and a wall to smash players into face/neck first. There's just no way that habitual dbags should be allowed to stay in the league. I remember a safety in the NFL safety who I think played for the Cardinals in the early 90's who was kicked out of the league because he used to like to spear guys just below the face mask so their helmets would pop off and go dramatically flying up into the air. Seems like a no brainer, someone does something dangerous to hurt players they get a slap on the wrist, second time same thing happens they should get a major suspension and the third time they can go down to the unemployment office.
Luckily in my opinion this is a really small minority among players and most players aren't trying to end people's careers out on the ice. This game is too good and dangerous when played the right way to allow the bad apples to stay.
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