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'The same every day' Donald Brashear still in pain from McSorley attack
Posted: Friday February 25, 2000 12:53 PM
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- Donald Brashear has headaches that won't quit and a swollen head. The fact the man who put him in such pain won't be playing again this season didn't seem to have much impact with Brashear. Brashear, who wasn't at the Vancouver Canucks' practice on Thursday, earlier this week spoke with the Vancouver Sun about his condition. "It's the same every day," Brashear said. "It hurts when I talk on the phone." Boston's Marty McSorley, whose slash to Brashear's head Monday night led to McSorley's suspension for the rest of the season and the playoffs -- perhaps longer -- was not on Brashear's mind. "I guess I shouldn't say anything yet," Brashear said, adding he might be more willing to talk "later." Although Brashear was being quiet about one of the NHL's uglier stick-swinging attacks in recent memory, others remained outraged by McSorley's act. They weren't as sparse with their comments. Ducks wing Paul Kariya, who missed nearly an entire season with post-concussion syndrome after Chicago's Gary Suter sticked him in the head, called McSorley's act "inexcusable." "This just looks bad for our game," Kariya told the Sun. "It doesn't accomplish anything and it takes our game back a step. When a play like this happens, it's front page in every paper, whereas all the great plays that happen during the year aren't. "For the fan who maybe doesn't see the game a lot, this is what they are going to focus on and this is what the papers are going to push. For our league, this type of criticism is horrible." Unlike McSorley's lengthy suspension, Suter was suspended for just four games. Kariya also missed the 1998 Olympics. "Any incident, especially something that happens to your head, has to be punished severely," Kariya said. "The league has to continue to do that and maybe keep raising the bar until they are out of the game. As a player, I don't know any other way to stop that kind of incident. In the heat of battle, I've lost my cool, but I didn't go out and club somebody." Bruins president-general manager Harry Sinden supports the length of McSorley's suspension. "Whatever suspension the league handed out, the Bruins and myself were prepared to accept as the fair one and the right one," Sinden said. "We think it's a very good one, and we think it's administered by very competent people. "The team in no way finds this excusable and does not condone these kinds of actions from any player and never has. We've witnessed over the years a number of them, both as victims and as the guilty party in some instances, and never have condoned any of them. "We don't find this type of action excusable. On the other hand, we will lend our support now that he's been punished and supplementary discipline has been handed down. We will lend our support to Marty as a Bruin and as a member of our team, and do what we can to help him from this day forward. I'm not quite sure what that will entail." Not surprisingly, McSorley drew support from natives of Cayuga, Ontario, his hometown. "I was listening to a Toronto radio station and they were calling for his scalp," said Brian Constable, a friend of the McSorley family. "It's a real shame if they're going to judge a man by one incident."
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