David Koci is about to be run out of Denver
J Scott Moore | Dec 17, 2009 | Comments 8
Oh please, please say it isn’t so! After Colorado fans have stood by their fallen comrade, Steve Moore for years, please say that Colorado isn’t the home of the newest, most evil, most hated, boo-when-he-touches-the-puck villain in the league! David Koci’s hit on Mike Green is the talk of the town. And word is Koci has till dusk to get out of town, or else.
The way some Avs fans are over-reacting and were freaking out last night on twitter and live threads you would think David Koci just broke some guy’s neck with a dirty sucker punch from behind. Give it a break Avs fans. I know how you feel, after the Steve Moore incident the last thing we want to be is the home of the cowardly.
Well, relax, it isn’t so. At least some of Denver is remaining calm about this hit.
Leahy at Puck Daddy thinks Koci will be getting a suspension while On Frozen Blog thinks an enforcer on the Caps roster might have prevented this in the first place.
Either way, Koci has been the target of a lot of Avs fans early this season, from the day he was signed in fact. And this crushing hit is just the excuse a lot of them have been waiting for to unleash on the guy. Most feel he has no place on the team and adds nothing to this young and exciting new team. That is a different debate. I’m going to focus on this hit. Was it really dirty? Intentional?
Shall we watch the video for 462nd time? Actually, don’t, not just yet. Fortunately for my level-headed analysis of this incident the freeze-frame for the video is all I need to convince you. This is a frozen moment in time. The moment milliseconds before the hit. Look at Green; he is NOT facing the boards. Look at Koci; he is less than 5 feet away from Green. Need I remind you how fast guys can go on skates? Even the slow ones can go pretty fast and Koci had all kinds of open ice to get his speed up to max.
So you tell me how he is supposed to change the direction of all that mass, at that speed…in less than 5 feet? Not possible. Koci took a chance that Green was going to keep going in the direction he was headed, if that had been the case Green would likely have suffered a hit just as crushing, shoulder to shoulder. But not only was he lollygagging about behind the net, he turned INTO the boards. Ok, now watch.
Alright you say, but regardless of Green turning into the boards, Koci is still at fault. Here is what I say to that.
That’s Don Cherry’s rules for defencemen. Hey Green, study up on #4 and #5.
Want to see the whole video? Go for it. Americans, protect your eyes because Don Cherry and his loud suits are about to make an appearance. Most Canadians are already immune to his wardrobe, so you may proceed with caution.
As for Bruce Boudreau and his comments after the game:
“Please, the guy’s got one goal in six years.”
And…
“It shows what we have to get rid of to have a good game. The guys that are sitting at the end of the bench and they come out and hit a guy for the sake of ‘I’ve got to run around like an idiot or I’ll never play again’ — those are the guys we’ve got to get rid of.”
Boudreau can make all the noise he wants about Koci andhis one goal in six years. It’s all a truckload of manure! He has a guy on his team that repeatedly runs around like an “idiot” going for the monster hits and has made it clear that he isn’t interested in changing his ways. But, Alex Ovechkin doesn’t sit on the end of the bench and he scores more goals than most hard-hitting “idiot” players, a lot more goals. Those are rare players and Boudreau’s comments imply that if a player can contribute with goals, it’s ok if he takes dirty shots at other players.
Ovi attempted his (debatably purposeful) knee-on-knee maneuver on Ryan Wilson and Wilson slipped it just in time. It also just so happens that it was right in front of me, a mere six rows from the ice and Wilson had THE BIGGEST grin on his face after slipping that hit, you would think he just scored a goal! Clearly he respected the attempted hit by Ovechkin and was pleased with himself for avoiding it. And Wilson is a guy that likes to hit, he understands what is going on here, he sure didn’t look to me like a guy that narrowly avoided the infamous Alex Ovechkin career-ending knee-on-knee special.
So let’s get back to Koci and the fans of the Colorado Avalanche. I think folks are really over-reacting to this hit and I think it has something to do with our past as Avs fans. As much as we have vilified (and justifiably) Todd Bertuzzi, David Koci is NOT the next incarnate of the Devil. Making all this noise about how embarrassed you are that he is in an Avs jersey is just ridiculous. Maybe he is guilty of a misjudgment of time and space, but he isn’t guilty of it on a regular basis. And for guys like that you have to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Filed Under: Colorado Avalanche
First off, thanks for taking my rant WAY of out context. Although, you did get something right. I was on the bandwagon of “why the hell did we sign this guy?”
On the Boudreau comments, every coach in the NHL is a hypocrite. Every coach in the NHL has that guy they keep at the bench to go out and rough up (some coaches, injure other players) when the game is out of hand. For the Avs, Koci is that guy.
I do agree with Boudreau, players like that are just a waste of a roster space. On to the real blame, it goes to Darcy Tucker. If Tucker (who has been the subject of my ridicule since about midway of last season), would have done his job of being the team’s enforcer, then there wouldn’t have been a “need” to sign Koci.
Maybe it was a good, hard hit. Maybe it was dirty. Who know’s? The main thing is, for years, I have been preaching about the NHL cracking down on boarding. I think it’s one of the lowest, cheapest penalties you can actually get in hockey.
Yet, people are still ignoring a question I have been posing all day, why show that much intensity when you are already down 5-0? Where was it when the Avs were down 1-0 or 2-0. Yes, pointing out someone going on a rant, and trying to make them look like an idiot is fun, but the point is, if the Avs had that level of intensity in the first period, the game would have had a MUCH different outcome.
I have to agree with Matt on this one. This is exactly what I said after the hit. Where was the fire and intensity before the game was out of hand? That is why the hit is dirty. Koci knew full well what he was doing when he skated at top speed toward a player along the boards with the game out of reach in the 2nd period. There is no reason for him to even go for that hit at that point in the game.
He has contributed absolutely nothing to the team this season, and he is not even good at fighting. Being a downgrade from Scott Parker is a pretty bad thing…
I would use your same logic on the Ovechkin’s hit on Kaleta that received the same penalty Koci got. Yet everybody calls that hit dirty and paints OV as a dirty player. Look at a freeze fram just before he hits Kaleta and you’ll Kaleta was not facing the boards until the very last second. I think Koci deserved the 5 minute major for boarding and perhaps the game misconduct. I also was okay with OV getting the same penalty. But I wouldn’t call either of them “dirty”.
Matt & Kevin, I agree that the Avs lacked fire and intensity. How is that Koci’s fault? He’s not the coach or the other players. When he got his ice time he showed some fire, and that is more than you can say about the rest of the guys. No? So don’t you think you should be riding the other guys as hard as you are Koci?
And I don’t think that you should turn down the intensity just because the game is assumed to be over. It isn’t. There’s time on the clock, play hard. That’s what they get paid to do.
You can’t have it both ways with a guy like Koci: you can’t complain about how he does nothing in his 2-3 minutes of ice time and then complain when he does do something.
As for his fighting ability, I agree that he isn’t a very good fighter. But Scott Parker wasn’t much of a hockey player either. Seriously, he was a very poor skater but he was well liked in Denver so you and a lot of other people are willing to give him a pass. That isn’t fair.
Matt, I don’t think I took your post out of context. It is a good post and I agree with you about fighting. I’m glad to find another supporter of fighting, I think it’s a great part of the game. And the Caps lack a pure fighter and that was possibly a factor in all of this. But you place too much blame on Koci. Tucker HAS been a poor signing for the Avs on a lot of levels.
charging/boarding with intent to injure. Sorry, but watching that video it’s quite clear he came in high as well. If Green hadn’t turned he would have taken a shot to the head, as it was, he took a shot to the head from behind.
There’s absolutely no way to justify that hit, he wound up and came full speed with the intent to injure Green. I’m not a Caps fan and I like what the Avs are doing this year, I’m just calling it as I see it. Completely illegal and deliberate intent to hurt him in my opinion
That’s a clear cut dirty play.
I wasn’t a Scott Parker fan either, that is why the downgrade is sad.
I think the hit was dirty, but not anything to be castrated over. You are absolutely correct that he should be skating hard on every shift no matter what the score is. My problem with it is when I take that hit, and all of the other hooking, poking, punching, etc. that Koci does in his 3 minutes per game has added up to over 60 pims. He is not helping the team by taking runs at other players. If had an ounce of hockey talent in him, then all of this would not matter to me. Goonery just for the sake of being a goon is not a brand of hockey that I find enjoyable, and that is the category I throw that hit into.
I already bookmark this post, I might get back and will read your new post… bye for now
Hello, good blogging. Want to get money for blogging? Check out: http://bit.ly/PaidWriting