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Marty's mess McSorley's vicious slash on Brashear shocks peers
Posted: Wednesday February 23, 2000 12:29 AM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Players across the NHL were disturbed by the vicious hit on Donald Brashear. They were also surprised Marty McSorley was the one wielding the stick Monday night in Vancouver. "I know him very well and he's not that type of guy," Maple Leafs tough guy Tie Domi said in Toronto. "He's got tremendous respect throughout the league. That's not Marty McSorley who did that. He definitely blacked out. He probably regretted it right after he did it." McSorley, a 17-year veteran, has apologized and was suspended indefinitely by the NHL for the hit, which came during the closing seconds of Vancouver's 5-2 victory over Boston. Brashear has a concussion and will be out two to three weeks. McSorley has a hearing in New York on Wednesday. The NHL Players' Association said it will not comment until the league rules. Canucks general manager Brian Burke described the Boston defenseman as a player who has been an "honest tough guy all of his career." But, Burke added: "He snapped ... and he should pay the price for that." "I'm sure right now there's not a lot of sympathy for Marty, but I'm sure nobody feels worse about it than him," Oilers winger Bill Guerin said in Edmonton. "He's a guy who's not known for that." Leafs winger Steve Thomas was diplomatic. "I think every guy in this league and every guy in this dressing room has had that point in a game where you just want to take someone's head off," Thomas said. "But that's a fine line and I think he crossed it." Oilers enforcer Georges Laraque has had a few nasty fights with Brashear this season. "I know I've had my battles with him, but this is something you don't want to happen to your worst enemy," Laraque said. "He's a tough guy who gives everything to his team, but he doesn't do something like that." Laraque was less forgiving with McSorley. "I would never allow him to play again," Laraque said. "I wouldn't even let him enter a rink again."
Maple Leafs goalie Glenn Healy, a former teammate of McSorley's, also condemned the defenseman. "There's absolutely no room in hockey for that type of action," said Healy, who played with McSorley with the Los Angeles Kings in 1988-89. "You just have to ask yourself: Would you like to have a stick across the side of your head like a baseball bat? I think the answer across the world would be no. It's that way in this dressing room and across the league, I'm sure. "Just as a human being watching it, it was disturbing -- let alone a player in this league." Leafs star goalie Curtis Joseph was shocked. "Respect is a big thing in this game," he said. "It's a game you want to win, but you can't use your stick flagrantly like that around somebody's head." Phoenix defenseman Jean-Jacques Daigneault, in Montreal where the Coyotes played the Canadiens on Tuesday night, wants the stick attacks to end. "I just wish a time would come when we only hit with our shoulders and not use our sticks to hit anyone -- like in other sports," he said. Domi tried to explain why such an act could happen. "When you're an emotional player, and you're losing, sometimes something just clicks on you and you snap," Domi said. "Sometimes when you snap you black out and you're not really thinking what you're doing. It's happened to me a lot of times." Thomas says McSorley's act cannot be excused. "I wouldn't want someone to do that to me," he said. "My God, there's no place for that in the game," Thomas said. "As soon as he did that, Marty knew he was in the wrong. It's one of those things where his intensity got the best of him there." Coyotes defenseman Jyrki Lumme said it all comes down to players having respect for each other. "Players say it was in the heat of the battle," he said. "But you have to stay in control."
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