Zdeno Chara Check Knocks Out Max Pacioretty (Video)

File this one under freak accident. Unless Zdeno Chara has pin-point accuracy in his attempts to hurt other players and knows how to use the structure of the rink to injure people, there’s no way the hit he put on Montreal’s Max Pacioretty during Tuesday night’s Bruins-Habs game was intentional. Canadiens fans will certainly argue otherwise, but watch the footage. Fortunately, Pacioretty is said to be okay after the hit. Check out the Zdeno Chara-Max Pacioretty knockout video, courtesy of NESN:

Chara was given a five-minute major, but only because Pacioretty was hurt so badly. Had the same play happened at any other spot on the ice, the result would not have been a disaster and Chara may have even avoided a penalty. We’re all glad Pacioretty is okay and nobody ever wants to see something like that happen, but it would be a shame to see the NHL suspend Chara for an unfortunate coincidence. The main thing we should learn from this incident is that the NHL needs to pad the area that separates the team benches. With guys flying around at such high speeds, it’s not safe to have rock solid glass and steel jetting out from the bench area. This injury is a tough way to figure that out.

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http://larrybrownsports.com Larry Brown

Perfectly said. Wonder how long before someone calls Chara a headhunter
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FKHL5TODAH4F7WCA367G62TCJI Tara

i would agree with your comments except for two non-coincidences: #1-the puck had been cleared and pacioretty had taken two or three strides before the hit….why didn’t chara hit him when they were ON the puck and avoid a penalty altogether? and #2-there is bad blood between chara and pacioretty…..pacioretty popped chara after scoring the game winner the last time they met in montreal. for these reasons, i expect a 2-3 game suspension. also, i don’t know how you call a severe concussion and a fractured vertebrae “okay”.
Anonymous

Any history between the two players is irrelevant to the actual hit that knocked him out. Maybe he checked him late, maybe he didn’t. The point is if the play happened 3 feet in either direction we aren’t even talking about it. To say Chara is enough of a marksman that he thought to himself at that moment in the middle of a game “hey, I don’t like this guy so I’m gonna hit him in a way that the corner of the glass will knock his head off” is complete ignorance.
Anonymous

Look again, there is padding on thsoe corners. You can’t put more on or you’d be blocking the view of top dollar seats and that’s a definite no-no. I heard critique all over espn today about that glass design, well I got news for you, every arena is like that. The far end of every bench is a corner piece of glass, no way around it.

most arenas have that as a media-camera area that needs some protection, our arena made that spot between the benches as the 2 most expensive seats in the building…and theys ell em every game