I don't know if you heard this story or not this weekend, but Kitchener Rangers defenceman Ben Fanelli suffered a fractured skull after being hit by a member of the Erie Otters during a game Friday night. Here's a video of the hit. The sound is scary enough as is the sight of Fanelli laying on the ice.
By the way, the Erie player Mike Liambas has been suspended indefinitely by the OHL. Ironically enough, he was the team's humanitarian of the year last season. He apparently is also very grief-stricken over the incident.
6 comments:
This is one of the hardest hits I've seen, but I have to wonder if the Kitchener player is guilty of turning away from the oncoming hit thus making it what it was. Too many players are doing this these days and sadly, this one suffered the consequences.
Mike
He didn't leave his feet, and it doesn't appear to be something where he took a run at him. I agree with the above poster. It seems he dipsy doodled, and turned himself. Note how the guy's helmut went flying off of him on impact. I see that all the time. These guys never do up their chinstraps tight, and I would wonder how much of that contributed to his head injury.
Obama
There's a little bit of an elbow there, but I've seen worse. That sound is downright ugly. He had to have struck the partition.
Rich
I say it was not a cheap shot at all just a case of one player closing very fast. Also I watched the replay 6 times and not once did I hear the goalie or his d partner yelling heads up.
I agree, it doesn't look like a charge. Looks to me as if the d-man spun around to reverse the puck and was caught in that danger zone (3 feet) from the boards. does sound like his head hit the stansion.
Clean hit with a bad outcome, everyone is ripping on liambas to the point where he had to delete his facebook account.. i feel bad for fanelli but liambas doesnt deserve the things that are being said about him.. hockey is a tough sport and shoulder to shoulder checks are not illegal.. nobody is to blame for this, its just the unfortunate truth that hockey is a dangerous sport.
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