When Is Enough....Enough??

Posted 12:47 AM ET | Comments 1

When is enough…..enough?

We all remember the “beheading” that Chris Simon laid on Ryan Hollweg last March….this time he tried to chop off Jarkko Ruutu’s skate. When is it enough?

The Islanders officially gave Chris Simon a leave of absence from the team yesterday to seek counseling. During the course of that counseling….will Simon realize that he shouldn’t be an NHL player anymore? Could he realize that he can’t control the line of being aggressively effective….and being a dangerous liability? Will he see that the frustration of not being able to produce and keep up like has his entire career, has now clouded his judgment?

You won’t find a person, coach or teammate (current or former) that doesn’t like Chris Simon…..ok maybe with the exception of Hollweg and Ruutu. His problem now is he has severely hurt both his team and an opposing player twice in the past 9 months….and that’s not a good trend. After serving a 25 game suspension, and saying all the right things after the Hollweg debacle….and only 26 games into his season….Simon has again done the unthinkable and received another Match Penalty in a critical game in which the Islanders again trailed by only a goal late in the 3rd…..only this time he hadn’t been hit….it wasn’t a heat of the moment situation, it was during a stoppage in play directly in front of both the referee and the Islanders bench. This suspension could be worse than the last one based on a history of attempting to injure and the circumstances….Simon may not be eligible to play until March.

Kudos to the Islanders organization for being proactive and not playing the “who me” card and ignoring the situation. Charles Wang handled this as well as possible suggesting that Simon seek help and have him spend time away from the team….it also takes the heat off the rest of the team from answering questions about this day in and out.

We’ll likely find out Simon’s fate today or tomorrow as he has a meeting with Colin Campbell this afternoon to discuss the incident….don’t expect leniency.

The real answers have to come from Simon now….will he realize that he’s been incredibly lucky he hasn’t badly hurt someone yet….or that returning to the ice could cause his luck to run out?

Isles Notes

Once again the Isles sleep walked through the first 10 minutes of the first period against Pittsburgh and fell in a 2-0 hole…..the need for better starts is key for them getting back on track.

Marc Andre Bergeron had a horrible give away on the first goal….and then kept DiPietro from clearing the rebound. His play was obviously effected the rest of his game as he looked lost when he had the puck. What bothers me about Bergeron is that Bryan Berard took a stupid penalty the other night and has sat since….Bergeron makes 4 or 5 terrible decisions a game and he continues to be thrown out there….and at the end of the game no less.

Can we please vote Rick DiPietro into the All Star Game?????.....even Wayne Gretzky believes Ricky is an All Star.

Blake Comeau has been recalled and will play on the 4th line with Tim Jackman and Richard Park.

Jeff Tambellini has 4 goals in his first 2 games back with Bridgeport.

Tune into the show tonight as we welcome our special guest Steve Mears….. 7:30….talkshow.islesnation.com

Buffalo tomorrow night….

Posted by; Tony

Filed Under: tony

dengler8

December 19, 2007 9:48 AM ET | Delete
When is enough...enough??? Whats your opinion??? You seem to be leaning toward him coming back and playing for the isles in March, but do you really want this goon/hack washed up psycho on your team? If so, you're just as crazy as him. and let me guess, you still believe Simon was in some sort of concussed/blacked out/never never land daze when he chomped hollwegs face in......OR maybe this time he was really dehydrated confused when he stomped ruutu's foot...get real

You must be logged in to leave a comment.