The last thing anyone around here wants, while we’re chafing at the bit to get Spring activities going (including, I suppose, yard cleanup), is to hear all the babble leading up to a Spring election. That’s one piece of the ubiquitous information puzzle we would like left out of our lives, especially when large and small polls show we trust, “none of the above,” from among our political parties to run the country honestly.
We all have our ideas about what should be done, but nobody else cares about them (us), especially including our elected groups, so we all, or at least most of us, can see no point to holding a vote on which of those groups should hold minority sway over our tax dollars.
Maybe if they put, “none of the above,” on the actual election ballot, Canadians could be convinced to show up at the poll. That option would win a lot of votes, but it wouldn’t make any difference in the way our lives operate. It would, however, allow Canadians to vent en masse and give citizens of democratic nations around the world something to think about and a good laugh.
That, of course, is not going to happen - an election is - so we must frown and bear it.
*****
First and last kick at the can on the Max Pacioretty injury.
Bobby Clarke, who knows more than a little about dirty hockey, says Zdeno Chara knew, “exactly what he was doing,” when he drove Pacioretty’s head into the turnbuckle.
Mark Recchi thinks the entire incident was a Montreal-based conspiracy involving players, emergency responders, hospital medical staff and all levels of government in Canada to try and get Chara suspended.
Chara says it was totally an accident. Pacioretty apparently isn’t buying into that, because he has refused to talk to Chara.
Gary Bettman says it was a, “normal,” hockey play.
My take, as a Habs fan who likes Bobby Clarke as a person very little, is that he is closest to the truth of the matter. The slow motion replays seem to strongly indicate that Chara used his hands to drive the head of Pacioretty (whom he dislikes, a lot, and felt he owed something) into the turnbuckle. It probably wasn’t done in an attempt to cause death or long-term disability. It probably was done to cause Pacioretty a great deal of pain and a little humiliation.
If the NHL feels that play, upon review, isn’t so dangerous as to deserve condemnation (and punishment) it will likely soon have a lot of injured players on its hands.