Ryan Hollweg suspended 3 games

I know there are plenty of do-gooders out there. Some purists perhaps. But I am more of an old school kinda guy by nature. So when Ryan Hollweg was suspended for 3 games today for his repeated boarding incident on Alex Pieterangelo, I can't help but think of the incident between Chris Simon and Hollweg from last year (March 2007). Hollweg boarded Simon before Simon got up and 2-handed him across the face. Check it out:



(Stupid play-by-play guys by the way)

Do you not feel a little less sorry for Hollweg now? Sure, Simon blew his stack and over reacted, but now you know the idiotic mindset of Hollweg as well. He's no better than Simon.
Watch Hollweg board a Kostitsyn brother after Kovalev decks him with an elbow.

So what did Hollweg say of his hit on Pieterangelo?

"Basically I was just following him pretty much shoulder to shoulder, kind of angling him towards the boards," Hollweg said after practice Wednesday. "I felt if he had continued to skate forward it would have just been a rub-out play and play would have continued. I felt he turned back and with that kind of speed and momentum it's hard to change gears in a split second like that.

"I was going to the boards hard myself and wasn't intending to hit him from behind. I was just trying to rub him out and cut his angle off. That's the way I saw the play develop."

(More from Hollweg here.) Either Hollweg is full of manure or every guy he has boarded has turned their back to him just before he hits them. I'll go with the former.
Am I justifying Simon's face-wrecking of Hollweg? Maybe a little. It's not right in today's NHL however. But if this was the 40's, 50's, 60's or even 70's Simon's actions wouldn't have been frowned upon as much in my opinion. He wouldn't have been banned.
Like I said, I'm old school, even though I'm 34. And I have a temper. So I feel a little for Chris Simon right now in regards to the Hollweg slashing incident, whether Chris was a repeat offender or not. Just being honest.

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