$1:
"Blake was a guy who had no problem going out and saying (Downie) should be suspended for life or suspended for the year," he explained, referring to Blake's reaction last September to the McAmmond incident. "When you say something that stupid, why shouldn't this kid go after him for it?"
Because if you allow the player to exact revenge on each other on ice for comments made off ice, you break down the walls separating the real world and the world of the game.
If it's Clarke's contention that Downie punched Blake fro something blake said off ice, then I think a charge of assault is warranted.
If one guy trash talks another on ice, and then gets hit on ice, that's just part of the game. If one guy makes a dirty hit on another than the other makes a retaliatory dirty hit on the first guy later, that's even kind of part of the game. But to make the violence of the game a cover for doing what you can't in real life is just wrong, and if that's what happened, then Downie should be in jail.
Forum Junkie 
