Montreal cops investigating hockey hit
Montreal's Max Pacioretty lies on the ice after a hit from Boston's Zdeno Chara Tuesday night.
March 10th, 2011
12:43 PM ET

Montreal cops investigating hockey hit

Police in Montreal said Thursday they will investigate a hit in Tuesday night's National Hockey League game as a possible crime, Canadian media report.

The hit by Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara on the Montreal Canadiens' Max Pacioretty left Pacioretty with a severe concussion and a fractured vertebra, according to a CTV report.

Chara was given two penalties on the play and ejected from the game. On Wednesday, the NHL said the penalties assessed on the ice were appropriate and it would take no further action.

But Quebec's top prosecutor, Louis Dionne, asked for the police investigation after watching video of the play, the CBC reported.

In the play, Pacioretty skates with the puck in front of the bench area of Montreal's Bell Centre as Chara comes alongside and tries to push Pacioretty into the boards along the benches. Pacioretty's head slams violently into a glass stanchion separating the two benches. Pacioretty was face-down on the ice for several minutes.

NHL Senior Vice President Mike Murphy called the hit "a hockey play that resulted in an injury because of the player colliding with the stanchion and then the ice surface," CTV reported.

Chara said Wednesday he did not try to harm Pacioretty.

“Obviously I feel bad about what happened. I was trying to make a strong hockey play and play hard. It was just very, very unfortunate that the player got hurt and had to leave the game,” the Boston Herald quoted him as saying.

"It was just one of those things. These things, like glass extensions, doors, even hockey nets, are part of the game. Obviously, players run into them. It’s just very, very unfortunate that a player got hurt,” he said.

The NHL's decision not to further discipline Chara didn't sit well with Canadiens fans. Their calls flooded a police emergency call center in Montreal after the league's announcement Wednesday asking police to take action, the CBC reported.

Pacioretty was also upset with the league.

"I am upset and disgusted that the league didn't think enough of [the hit] to suspend him," he told Bob McKenzie of TSN.com. "I'm not mad for myself, I'm mad because if other players see a hit like that and think it's OK, they won't be suspended, then other players will get hurt like I got hurt."

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Filed under: Boston • Canada • Hockey • Montreal • NHL • Sports
soundoff (544 Responses)
  1. Brit

    It does not surprise me that a province of french majority would be pursuing an American in the interest of treating an assault in a hockey game which is very popular to begin with. french people have no strong values other than surrender. I sure wished france would have never been liberated and quebec is invaded by Canadians.

    March 10, 2011 at 4:45 pm | Report abuse |
    • Anne

      Are you for real??? Pacioretty is American and Chara is Czech! They're not going after him because he plays for an American team, if the hit came from a player of the Canadiens, they would probably suspend him themselves!

      March 10, 2011 at 9:21 pm | Report abuse |
    • Anne

      One last thing: you do realize that Quebec is in Canada therefore Canadians cannot invade Canada... man, you really are showing your ignorance

      March 10, 2011 at 9:23 pm | Report abuse |
  2. Curtis

    What they should have no open glass ! It should all be inclosed to pervent things like this! It was all in play!

    March 10, 2011 at 4:48 pm | Report abuse |
  3. norm

    Now all these sarcastic comments. Rest assured , no matter what anyone says, jokingly or otherwise.

    THIS MATTER IS NOT A JOKE. If you make a joke out of this serious assault, you who make light of this
    incident ARE A MAJOR JOKE YOURSELVES.. Get serious...Grow up...And give the matter the seriousness
    it deserves.

    THIS WAS AN AGGRAVATED ASSAULT , PLANNED AND PREMEDITATED. CHARA WILL BE PROSECUTED
    AS HE SHOULD BE. IT IS OBVIOUS THAT HE ...CHARA...PLANNED TO HURT PACCIORETTI WHEN HE
    SAW THE STANCHION THERE AND USED THIS OPPORTUNITY FOR PAYBACK OR REVENGE...

    March 10, 2011 at 4:52 pm | Report abuse |
  4. dave

    if the stanchion wasn't so close to where boards are it never would have happened. Sure Max would have gotten hit hard, fallen to ice but his injuries wouldn't have been as severe as they ended up being. That little box serves as an area for an on ice analyst to give feedback about game to a couple of , usually, ex players to report back to viewers on television. this is an easy fix. not sure about going as fas as enclosing whole rink, b/c that would make changing on the fly near impossible with tight quarters on bench. make more doorways within each bench could be a solution if rink was fully encapsulated. either remove stanchion altogether or push it back 3 feet. easy solution nhl, be proactive

    March 10, 2011 at 4:53 pm | Report abuse |
  5. Bob

    You are all stupid. Grow up.

    March 10, 2011 at 4:55 pm | Report abuse |
  6. Hockey is retarded

    Seriously who cares! Its hockey, part of the game. Actually they should just ban this stupid sport

    March 10, 2011 at 4:57 pm | Report abuse |
  7. nicki

    This is the dumbest waste of time! I'm a long time hockey fan and while I do not like the violence, I do like them to be rough with each other. I'm sure Chara meant to give him a very effective check, but if you watch the play, there's no way at all he intended for him to hit that part of the rink. Accidents happen and clearly this was an accident in a very physical sport.

    March 10, 2011 at 4:59 pm | Report abuse |
  8. Wes

    Police are seriously going to investigate this? So now police have to investigate every fight that takes place in hockey? Sorry that you are mad about your player being hurt, but this is hockey and stuff happens. You can't investigate every hard hit in sports. If you disagree with me then consider yourself a hopeless individual.

    March 10, 2011 at 5:05 pm | Report abuse |
  9. Seriously?

    The hit looks REAL clean from this pic: http://habsinsideout.com/files/hio/images/chara-hit.jpg

    March 10, 2011 at 5:06 pm | Report abuse |
  10. fred

    The problem is a safety issue, time to re-design the rinks so that you can't get checked into something that is as hard as a brick wall, that is one reason the NFL moved the goal posts years ago because players were getting injured running into them

    March 10, 2011 at 5:07 pm | Report abuse |
  11. gatorguy

    Anybody that saw the play on ESPN can tell that poor guy was measured up and slammed into the post deliberately. You can tell that Chara was looking for the post as the two skated alongside each other. Too bad we can get video of Charas eyes as the contact started until the other guy was assaulted. The fact that the NHL isnt doing anything about this is terrible.
    Yes I am not a hockey fan. I actually wasnt allowed to play when I lived in Chicago because I was too rough. But what Chara did was plain and simple attempted murder.

    March 10, 2011 at 5:10 pm | Report abuse |
  12. Gobbo

    Is it the act or the consequence that people are upset about? Why don't the police open criminal investigations every time two guys throw off the gloves and pound eachother's faces in? They'd be arrested if they did the same thing in the parking lot... Why does standing on ice make THAT not criminal?

    March 10, 2011 at 5:11 pm | Report abuse |
  13. Dee

    I agree that if the hit would have been anywhere else on the ice the injury probably would not have happened. Hopefully Pacioretty will have a full recover. This stupid police investigation is not coming from "Canada" it's coming from "Quebec" – a province that wants to separate from Canada. Being Canadian it shames me but doesn't surprise me that "les quebecqois" think this is a police matter. It's ridculous!!

    March 10, 2011 at 5:20 pm | Report abuse |
    • Anne

      Huh, excuse me but where was the investigation done for the Bertuzzi hit??? Stop being so high and mighty oh great one from Canada – I'm from Quebec and I'm Canadian too!!!

      March 10, 2011 at 9:27 pm | Report abuse |
  14. Mortarman

    Let's sum it up Montreal is full of pu$$y'$... When the tough get going Montreal puts it's head up it's a$$ and cries..

    March 10, 2011 at 5:21 pm | Report abuse |
  15. rich

    Chara's hit was far more deliberate an attempt to injure than Gillies hit in the Islanders game and he got 10 games for it. Chara should have gotten at least a five game suspension because it was deliberate, no matter what he says after the fact.

    I have played the game and been part of it as a coach and official for close to 35 years and have seen this type of hit before but when you add the speed and strength of today's NHL players this type of hit is incredibly dangerous

    Is it something the prosecutor should look into, hell no. It is hockey

    March 10, 2011 at 5:22 pm | Report abuse |
    • Ian

      I agree. Gillies hit to the head was deliberate and was dealt with as such.

      March 10, 2011 at 7:55 pm | Report abuse |
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