Good article and video.....things are very different today eh!! Awesome and/or Horrific Old YouTube Clip of the Week In addition to being a great source of adorable pets and functionally illiterate commenters, YouTube is a goldmine for old hockey clips. In this section we find one, and break it down in way too much detail. The Dallas Stars retired Mike Modano’s number this week, a well-deserved honor for the greatest player in franchise history. So to mark the occasion, this week’s YouTube breakdown will feature the most memorable moment of his career. Here’s what I love about Modano — he played 20 years, won a Cup, and scored almost 1,400 points. And yet when I say “the most memorable moment of his career,” every old-school hockey fans knows exactly what’s coming next. And if you’re a relatively new fan who hasn’t seen this one before, well … strap in, because you’re in for a twist ending for the ages. (Hm. Maybe “strap in” wasn’t the best choice of words there.) So let’s set the scene. It’s February 26, 1994, and the Stars are in the midst of their first season in Dallas. Modano is having the best season of his career, on his way to recording a 50-goal season, as the Stars host the New York Rangers. We start with Ulf Dahlen carrying the puck across the Rangers zone. He feeds a pass to Modano, who looks down to collect it and OH GOOD GOD MARK MESSIER JUST MURDERED HIM. Let’s pause here. While Modano was clearly hurt on this play, he ended up missing less than a week before returning to action. All things considered, he came out of all this surprisingly fine. You’re not a terrible person if you laugh at the end of this clip. (I mean, you might be a terrible person. I don’t know you. But not because you laughed. I think. I’m still not 100 percent sure, to be honest.) So Modano is KO’d by the headshot and slides into the boards, where he lies on the ice without moving until an official skates over and accidentally kicks him, which I always thought was a nice touch. “Mark Messier bumped Modano,” says one of the announcers. You know, I’m not sure “bumped” is the word you’re looking for here. The asteroid that created the Chicxulub crater “bumped” the Yucatán Peninsula. This wasn’t a bump. I’d probably go with “obliterated.” Would now be a good time to mention that one of Messier’s post-career business ventures has been designing a special helmet to reduce concussions? I’ve never tried one, but I assume it comes with a little speaker inside that constantly whispers “Hey, you might want to make sure Mark Messier is not about to viciously blindside you.” Here’s comes the replay. OK, everyone, it’s time for a round of “Guess the suspension if this hit happened today.” (Reviews footage.) Yeah, I’m going to go with “all the games.” Literally every one of them. Even the ones involving other teams. Anyone who threw this hit today would immediately be loaded into a rocket and fired into the sun. And here’s what Messier actually got: nothing. No suspension. Not even a minor penalty. Back in 1994, this was considered a squeaky-clean hit. Stars coach and GM Bob Gainey even blamed it on Modano, saying: “I didn’t think it was a dirty hit. He got his shoulder right on the jaw. I don’t know if it was so much a hit as Mike turned and skated right into him.” I swear to you that’s a real quote. Seriously, think back to this hit the next time somebody tries to tell you that today’s NHL is more dangerous than ever. Right now, the league’s entire ban on blindside head shots could just be this clip running on a loop in the middle of a red circle with a line through it. Speaking of red circles, on the second replay we get a nice view of Modano’s head leaving a spiral pattern of blood on the ice as he spins around. Again: 20 years ago, this was a perfectly clean hit and was mostly Modano’s fault. But sure, the NHL hasn’t done anything to try to make the game safer. OK, I’m done with the moral high ground routine. So, uh … who’s ready to laugh at somebody else’s misfortune? The clip cuts away as the trainers continue to tend to Modano on the ice. When it comes back, they’ve got him loaded onto a stretcher and are taking him to an ambulance. And while we know now that he turned out to be OK, at this point we had no idea. He looks bad. It’s all very somber. The medics are clearly taking this very seriously. Wait for it … HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN? I mean, that’s awful, and it shouldn’t be funny, but … 20 years later, it’s OK to laugh, right? (Goes back to the Times article: “[Stars team doctor John] Brooks said he didn’t think the dropping of the stretcher harmed Modano.”) Yeah, I’m 60 percent sure it’s OK to laugh. Actually, everyone blames the EMTs for dropping the stretcher, but if I remember right the story at the time was that one of the Stars medical staff had accidentally touched the stretcher’s release mechanism, causing it to collapse. Presumably it was the same sort of switch somebody pressed during the third period of this week’s Canucks-Islanders game. The play-by-play guy’s reaction is classic: “Oh look at that! Oh my goodness. I … I can’t believe we just saw that.” How is it that hockey fans haven’t taken to adding this sound bite to other famous NHL moments, like we do with Jim Ross? Why can’t I download a copy of the Rask-for-Raycroft trade announcement with this sound bite dubbed in? I don’t understand you sometimes, Internet. By the way, if carrying an NHL star on a collapsible stretcher seems old-school, remember that it wasn’t that long ago that injured players got carried off by their own teammates on what was basically two sticks with a sheet between them. So … progress? These days, blindside hits are illegal, head injuries are taken much more seriously, and NHL medical care has come a long way (as we saw just this week in Dallas during that awful Peverley incident). In 1994, if you got hit like this, it was your fault and they carried you out on a defective stretcher that apparently had an “EJECT” button on the side. https://youtube/watch?v=0yxLlZkknv0
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 19:57:18 +0000
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