Joni Pitkanen Suspended One Game, Will Miss Olympic Quarterfinals
by Cory Lavalette on Feb 22, 2010 9:15 AM EST
26 comments
Finnish defenseman Joni Pitkanen has been suspended one game for his hit on Sweden's Patric Hornqvist. Pitkanen was ejected from Sunday night's game and received a five-minute major penalty after delivering a high hit to Hornqvist in the second period of Sweden's 3-0 win.
Pitkanen will miss Finland's quarterfinal game while the status of Hornqvist, who missed the remained of the game, is not yet known. Both teams earned a bye into the round of eight.
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This is bad all around. Just bad.
Bad for Team Finland, they need him in the lineup to stay competitive. Bad for Hornqvist, I knew he had left the game but was unsure of his return. Worse for Joni. We know he’s not a dirty player but he could have taken steps to avoid a hit to the head and didn’t and that’s not going to be tolerated in international competition (and shouldn’t be). Not a good display on an international stage and I’m sure his reputation is going to take a tumble.
Hope Hornqvist is okay and can return for Sweden’s next game.
Sees the world through ruuu-colored glasses...
Sisu
I agree
you said it all and correctly LTD…we, thank you !!
Relax !! Even Micro Wave Popcorn takes time !! Go Canes !!
Did you stay up for the whole game, LTD? I headed out at 3-0, right before the Joni hit.
Then Ruutut got all the attention as the only Finn star of the game. The camera couldn’t stay away from him.
I still keep thinking: WTF were they thinking in Helsinki in December to not have Jussi there? Finland looked old last night. They coulda used a 26-yr old pair of legs instead of all those in the over-35 bracket.
Pits and Jussi are magic, and with Ruutu leading their team now in his familiar Ruu-awesomeness, someone in the upper ranks of Finland hockey has got to asking how Jussi was overlooked for frickin’ “politics”. And I’m not even Finnish and I’m really pissed off about it.
Have you given any thought to the potential Friday match-up? One game at a time, I guess.
U S A ! U S A ! U S A ! U S A !
by hockeymomof2 on Feb 22, 2010 10:24 AM EST up reply actions
Yeah, I stayed up until the bloody bitter end, even hung on afterwards in case there were interviews. I figured as long as Tuomo was going to show up I would too, and as expected he did not disappoint me. I was very proud of the way he played.
As much as I dearly love our Jussi and believe he should be there, I don’t believe he would have been enough to have made the difference last night. He may have been able to help the goal-scoring but the Finns needed help in all areas of the ice. They did look old at times, but no way Jussi would have ever replaced S. Koivu or Selanne unless it was due to injury. The “questionable” players that Jussi could have replaced were IMO Jarkko Immonen or Antti Miettinen and they’re both around the same age as Jussi (27 and 29 respectively).
Not having Joni in the next game is really going to hurt them.
Sees the world through ruuu-colored glasses...
Sisu
they probably wish they didn’t get the bye, that way Joni would be out vs. a lesser opponent
by Cory Lavalette on Feb 22, 2010 11:02 AM EST up reply actions
Yeah but how about Jehre Lehtinen, for that matter Jussi is producing better, and is less of a locker room poison than Olli.
by wylde4canes on Feb 22, 2010 11:18 AM EST up reply actions
I guess I’m thinking the Finns might have benefitted having Jussi’s 26 yr old legs with world-class and very-clutch talent plus chemistry with 2 of their biggest stars. If the score hadn’t been 3-0, and Joni wasn’t so frustrated, perhaps that hit wouldn’t have happened that way. He wouldn’t have been looking to leave an impression with his elbow, instead looking with confidence for a great feed to Jussi like he has done so often the last year. (and for a decade previously).
A lot of what-if’s but a lot more like the Joni we know than that dirty hit he put on Hornqvist.
U S A ! U S A ! U S A ! U S A !
by hockeymomof2 on Feb 22, 2010 11:20 AM EST up reply actions
I haven’t seen video of the hit yet. It is hard to know what was happening on the ice during the game; so it is hard for me to judge whether Pitkanen meant to make a bad hit or whether emotions were running wild. Is there a link someplace to the Pitkanen hit. There is no question in my mind that Jussi Jokinen is missed by Team Finland and that the decision to leave him off Team Finland may come back to haunt them.
For those of you who haven’t seen the video/can’t get it to work … I did some screen grabs and did an animated .gif of the hit.
by Cory Lavalette on Feb 22, 2010 12:17 PM EST reply actions
Clearly Joni didn’t get the memo that a) he’s not Chris Pronger and b) for his “sneaky nasty” to be effective, it has to be sneaky.
"This guy is as meat and potatoes as there is of a man."
Gleason for Emperor!
in watching the video … shortly before the hit it looks like he tried to get his elbow up on a hit made against the boards.
by Cory Lavalette on Feb 22, 2010 12:21 PM EST up reply actions
That’s so unlike him. He plays with an edge that rears its head every once in a while, but I can’t think of a game that he’s been so blatantly reckless. Perhaps a case of frustration and out of control emotions got the better of him.
"This guy is as meat and potatoes as there is of a man."
Gleason for Emperor!
wow. intentional or unintentional, that’s a nasty shot.
by CoastalCane on Feb 22, 2010 12:47 PM EST up reply actions
He looks right at him before the elbow goes up. Unfortunately IMHO its absolute intent on Joni’s part
i’m sure he felt bad afterwords though
by silent_shadow36 on Feb 22, 2010 5:37 PM EST up reply actions
wow. i fell asleep in in the first intermission and missed the hit. hope Hornqvist is ok, and Joni for that matter…
by silent_shadow36 on Feb 22, 2010 3:23 PM EST reply actions
Joni does have a dirty side to his play, it has reared its head before. I remember a game thread on here where it was mentioned and noticed….Maybe dirty is the wrong term, lets say he has a NASTY side that shows itself when he is A) Tired B) Frustrated…
It’s pretty hard to find a term that carries the right connotation for a player who has something of a mean streak for contact sports. It is not really mean-spirited; but it is more than merely intense. Gleason has that side that can be mean. Ruutu as well hits will conviction that goes beyond merely doing it because it is his job. I think Pitkanen is developing that part of his game where he brings an edge of quiet rage to the hit. It does seem that Pitkanen was sending a message and that the hit was not a legal hit. I wonder what was happening on the ice prior to that hit.
I know Pitkanen needs to be able to control his temper, but as he develops the hitting portion of his game, he is going to be an amazing player for the Hurricanes. If the Hurricanes have an area that needs attention, it is the ability to lay trainwreck hits at appropriate times and in appropriate ways. Ruutu, of course, is a freight train. Gleason comes bearing a desire to knock his opponent into the 300 rows of the RBC. Alberts too can lay a ton of pain on a forward who loses concentration around him. Still, at least one hitting forward and one more hitting defenseman would make a huge difference to the Hurricanes (in conjunction with having those new hitting players also have world class hockey skills — i.e. Pitkanen and Gleason and now, Staal.
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