Open Season On Goalies: Part Tootoo

When Milan Lucic concussed Ryan Miller and escaped without league punishment, Buffalo Sabres coach Lindy Ruff stated that it was “open season” on goaltenders, and that it would set a precedent. Jordin Tootoo didn’t want Ruff to look the fool, so he took it upon himself to prove the longest tenured coach correct in the assessment.

Comparing this hit to the Lucic incident isn’t even close to fair. A few of the differences include:

• The Sabres lack of response to Lucic vs The dog-pile brawl on Tootoo
• The divisional rivalry with the Bruins vs A relatively cool relationship with the Predators
• Milan Lucic (a superstar, 60 point player) vs Jordin Tootoo (a checking line pest)
• Miller coming out of the crease vs Tootoo crashing the crease
• Miller concussed vs Paul Gaustad injured (from the ensuing scrum)
• Bruins players do not get suspended vs Any other team in the league

You get the idea. Basically the only similarity between the two incidents is that they both involved Ryan Miller. So there are a couple of questions that come up because of what happened. Should Tootoo be suspended? Is it indeed Open Season on goalies? Did Gaustad redeem himself? Is Tootoo on par with Lucic for villainy in Buffalo?

Let’s tackle the last question for now. Milan Lucic will always be light years ahead of Jordin Tootoo, and most other players, in the running for Most Hated In Buffalo. That’s because he plays for a division rival, he’s won a Cup, he’s able to physically dominate just about anyone on the Blue & Gold, and he’s a first or second line forward that puts up big points. Basically we hate on him because he wears Black & Gold instead of a Sabres sweater. We wish Drew Stafford or Paul Gaustad could turn in to that kind of player. Let’s not kid ourselves here.

Tootoo, meanwhile, is a pest. He was an extremely good fighter, but he’s cleaned up his game in recent years, and now he works to agitate other teams, play physical, and chip in occasional points. With his build of 5′ 9″ and weight of 199 lbs, he’s kind of like that one guy on the Sabres…you know, the one from Angola that likes to head butt. Kinda got a billy goat thing going on

Don’t believe me? In 2008-2009 Tootoo was involved in 10 fights, but he’s cleaned up since then to avoid being labelled an enforcer, playing on the fourth line, or fighting his way out of the league. Patrick Kaleta faces a similar situation, even being commended earlier this year by Brendan Shanahan (ironically in a meeting involving a suspension) for cleaning up his game. Sampling from the last 3 seasons’ fight cards (thank you HockeyFights.com) we can see their cards are almost identical:

Jordin Tootoo: 6 W, 2 L, 2 D
Patrick Kaleta: 6 W, 1 L, 1 D

Taking career totals for points per game and penalty minutes per game:

Jordin Tootoo: 0.24 PPG, 1.16 PIM per game
Patrick Kaleta:  0.19 PPG, 1.59 PIM per game

While Tootoo has the edge in points, and Kaleta has the edge in penalty minutes, you’re talking about the same kind of character here. Both guys are great at getting under another team’s skin, and both have made an NHL career out of being the villain. Buffalo Sabres fans tend to wear blinders when trying to comprehend why the league hates Kaleta so so much. It’s because he is to the Sabres what Tootoo is to the Preds. And if Kaleta ran into Anders Lindback, there would be a lot of talk about how he was out seeking revenge against the league’s goaltenders for what happened to Miller.

And here’s the important part to remember: a lot of Sabres fans would defend him. Because he’s our pest.

There will forever be a debate over whether or not Tootoo tried to avoid Miller. Whether Christian Ehrhoff pushed him into the goaltender, or if Miller should’ve been penalized for throwing punches. Trolls of the internet will sit on their high horse and chide the Sabres for responding to the comparatively small Tootoo instead of the hulking Lucic. Analysts will debate whether he was crashing to the net or if he left his feet to avoid or enhance the hit.

My favorite part is when someone points out that if Tootoo wanted to hit Miller that Ryan wouldn’t have gotten up. Because pests in the NHL don’t know anything about tact or getting away with something shady, I guess. You don’t make a career of drawing penalties and getting under teams’ skins by always throwing haymakers, kids. [end sarcasm]

No matter which way it’s sliced, Lindy Ruff has been proven right. It’s open season. Any action taken by the league is going to be argued against the precedent sent when they didn’t suspend Lucic even one game, which was the entire reason they should’ve done just that. Had they sat down Milan for just 60 minutes of hockey, they would be able to point to it and say, “We did something then to avoid this mess now.” But they didn’t. Paul Gaustad’s warning to Anders Lindback, pointing to him and yelling, “You’re next!”…that wasn’t a threat. That was a head’s up. This is what the league is because of a lack of action. Maybe Goose is actually looking out for Lindback, in a way. [end sarcasm]

We can all debate all day what exactly was going through Tootoo’s head when he crashed the net that hard. I for one don’t believe he was thinking at all. It was an incredibly dumb move no matter how you look at it, and he paid for it by an entire hockey team trying to tear him apart.

But that was classless of the Sabres because he’s not 6′ 4″ and 220 lbs. You just can’t please everybody, I guess.

EDIT: It’s not like other superstar goalies are getting run elsewhere either. Open season it is.

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