Are you an expert?

[JC]

Elliotte,
Doesn't matter if it was up, or down, to the side, or in his ear. By your account: Three previous question... Isn't that enough reason for a follow-up stance or question? Really, was he supposed to ask about neutral zone faceoffs?
It shouldn't allow a "house shill" to make an inglorious attempt to at an ethical stance.

Should allow the Pittsburgh "house shill" to mislead people with his question?

 

[fishwrapper]

I don't know Fittipaldo. At all. Never been in the same room as him.
But, as far as I can tell, he's never worked for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
That is an undeniable difference.

"Did you know that you got your elbow up on that hit?"

I'm not sure how that's a misleading question. If he wants to deny the assertion, fine.
The only misleading segment was the Ottawa reporter stating the league was going to look into the hit.

 

[cwilson3]

I don't know Fittipaldo. At all. Never been in the same room as him.
But, as far as I can tell, he's never worked for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
That is an undeniable difference.

"Did you know that you got your elbow up on that hit?"

I'm not sure how that's a misleading question. If he wants to deny the assertion, fine.
The only misleading segment was the Ottawa reporter stating the league was going to look into the hit.

I don't see how it's not misleading to ask him if he knew about something that didn't happen.

 

[fishwrapper]

I'm not sure why there is a perception of an ulterior motive all the time.
Maybe, that is what Fittipaldo believe took place.
If you have a problem, deny it. Tell him to go watch video. Don't say anything. There are many ways to express oneself. Some right, some that of a 15-year-old boy.

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

Side note: WHAT A ****ING HIT.

No ****. That's a defenseman's dream. A guy coming straight down the ice with his head down.

Indeed, his timing on the right analog stick was sublime.

 

[Dan Hickling]

I've known Ian Mendes for years ... and he's as right as rain ... no question of his objectivity ... the Ottawa market may be small, but it is as discriminating about it's hockey coverage as any, and Ian is as sharp as they come ....

 

[Sic semper tyrannis]

I've known Ian Mendes for years ... and he's as right as rain ... no question of his objectivity ... the Ottawa market may be small, but it is as discriminating about it's hockey coverage as any, and Ian is as sharp as they come ....

never underestimate the ability of the geniuses at sportsjournalists.com to "evaluate" a person / situation based on little to no information
Mendes, to his great credit, would not be wounded by the slagging he has taken here based on a "bio" on a website
I get a lot out of this site, but there is much that makes me cringe

 

[Colin Dunlap]

I've known Ian Mendes for years ... and he's as right as rain ... no question of his objectivity ... the Ottawa market may be small, but it is as discriminating about it's hockey coverage as any, and Ian is as sharp as they come ....

Full disclosure, I work w/ Ray. But A thought here:
To appear objective, you probably shouldn't post things such as the following on your Twitter account, such as Mendes did the day of Pens/Sens Game 2
----



About to enter Penguins room. Who thinks I should ask Sidney Crosby about playing in the last ever game at Mellon Arena tonight? ;-) 10:56 AM Apr 16th via OpenBeak

 

[Elliotte Friedman]

fish,

Not trying to take sides here. Just painting a picture. I personally disagreed with Mr. Fittipaldo's question -- and saw why Sutton would react that way to it -- but don't have any issue with the man.

I thought he did a great job of keeping his cool.

EF

 

[93Devil]

I have a dog in the fight, and that was a bad question.

If I am working PR in the room for the Sens, and I hear that question, I immediatly move over and get into "just-in-case" position.

How about...

Many people feel your elbow might have been up on that hit. Would you like to comment on the hit and the position of your elbow?

 

[Ace]

I totally agree with Mendes here, and agree that the hit looked clean. But this is the first time I've ever seen a journalist call out another journalist for a line of questioning. Sure, we've all said in our heads, "What was he thinking asking that?" But I've never seen anyone actually call someone out in a column with such detail.

Dude deserved to be called out. If you aren't getting what you need, why keep saying the same thing? And it wasn't on the replay.

 

[Double J]

I've known Ian Mendes for years ... and he's as right as rain ... no question of his objectivity ... the Ottawa market may be small, but it is as discriminating about it's hockey coverage as any, and Ian is as sharp as they come ....

Full disclosure, I work w/ Ray. But A thought here:
To appear objective, you probably shouldn't post things such as the following on your Twitter account, such as Mendes did the day of Pens/Sens Game 2
----



About to enter Penguins room. Who thinks I should ask Sidney Crosby about playing in the last ever game at Mellon Arena tonight? ;-) 10:56 AM Apr 16th via OpenBeak

Ouch. Not cool, Ian.

From the way Crosby has played in the last two games, it would appear that Mendes did indeed ask him that question, and Crosby has responded by making Ottawa players look as foolish as possible.

 

[Twoback]

Well, the reporter was wrong, it was a clean hit. His elbow was tucked into his body.

Bull. Elbow was clearly up, and the major part of the injury-causing contact.
Now, one can try to excuse the reason for the elbow coming up, which is more bull, but it does not take an expert to know whether a human being's elbow is tucked to his side or extended.
Ray was right. I just wish he'd said, "I have eyes."

 

[Twoback]

As a guy who played hockey through high school, that was as clean of big hit as you're going to see. The guy was skating laterally with his head down, which is a death wish. Sutton turned to get in front of him, so not to board him, didn't charge, which is taking three steps or more into a hit, and had his hands down when the initial contact started. Leopold had his head so far down, that it was below Sutton's shoulder, which makes it look like he followed through with his elbow, but if you watch it slow, his arm doesn't really come up until Leopold is falling off him.

He elbowed Leopold in the head. The elbow is essentially the only part of Sutton's body that struck Leopold directly, and the only place where Leopold is contacted is in the head.
The people trying to excuse this hit are unbelievable.

 

[Double J]

Well, the reporter was wrong, it was a clean hit. His elbow was tucked into his body.

Bull. Elbow was clearly up, and the major part of the injury-causing contact.
Now, one can try to excuse the reason for the elbow coming up, which is more bull, but it does not take an expert to know whether a human being's elbow is tucked to his side or extended.
Ray was right. I just wish he'd said, "I have eyes."

Not true.

Not even one little bit.

Watch the video. Watch all the replays. His elbow was NOT up. Anybody who says it was is a liar.

 

[Double J]

As a guy who played hockey through high school, that was as clean of big hit as you're going to see. The guy was skating laterally with his head down, which is a death wish. Sutton turned to get in front of him, so not to board him, didn't charge, which is taking three steps or more into a hit, and had his hands down when the initial contact started. Leopold had his head so far down, that it was below Sutton's shoulder, which makes it look like he followed through with his elbow, but if you watch it slow, his arm doesn't really come up until Leopold is falling off him.

He elbowed Leopold in the head. The elbow is essentially the only part of Sutton's body that struck Leopold directly, and the only place where Leopold is contacted is in the head.
The people trying to excuse this hit are unbelievable.

cwilson3 is absolutely correct. That's exactly how it happened.

It was the upper arm, between the elbow and the shoulder, that hit Leopold. Keep in mind, Sutton is six inches taller than Leopold.

 

[JC]

Well, the reporter was wrong, it was a clean hit. His elbow was tucked into his body.

Bull. Elbow was clearly up, and the major part of the injury-causing contact.
Now, one can try to excuse the reason for the elbow coming up, which is more bull, but it does not take an expert to know whether a human being's elbow is tucked to his side or extended.
Ray was right. I just wish he'd said, "I have eyes."

You are so ****ing wrong it's unbelievable, arm tucked into body until after impact. Clean hit, period. But because it happened to somebody playing in Pittsburgh the fanboy in you comes out. Now that is laughable. Leopold had his head down, it was a north south hit and Sutton is about 5 inches taller than him.

I believe you compared this to Cooke's hit on Savard, if you truly believe this, than I suggest you start watching a little more hockey outside of your beloved Pens.

 

[JC]

Twoback, here is a hit by one your Pens that did not get supplemental discipline but probably should have. This hit by Malkin ended Mitchell's season. A hit from behind where a player is defensless, I'm sure this one was ok becaus the offending player resides in Pittsburgh.

Malkin gets off pretty easy when it comes to talk of that "dirty" Russian. I guess in Pens fans minds there can be only one dirty Russian.

 

[Sic semper tyrannis]

Well, the reporter was wrong, it was a clean hit. His elbow was tucked into his body.

Bull. Elbow was clearly up, and the major part of the injury-causing contact.
Now, one can try to excuse the reason for the elbow coming up, which is more bull, but it does not take an expert to know whether a human being's elbow is tucked to his side or extended.
Ray was right. I just wish he'd said, "I have eyes."

You are so ****ing wrong it's unbelievable, arm tucked into body until after impact. Clean hit, period. But because it happened to somebody playing in Pittsburgh the fanboy in you comes out. Now that is laughable. Leopold had his head down, it was a north south hit and Sutton is about 5 inches taller than him.

I believe you compared this to Cooke's hit on Savard, if you truly believe this, than I suggest you start watching a little more hockey outside of your beloved Pens.

okay, not sure why you are getting so worked up. But this kind of hit - and its arguable about whether Sutton's elbow made the main contact - is what is being discussed -- that the checking player has to have some measure of recognition that the hit could be exactly what it was.
Sutton can hit Leopold, but he doesn't have to come gliding in from 10 feet and ****ing destroy the guy, head down or not.
The fact Sutton's momentum takes him stumbling into the boards shows how reckless the hit was

 

[JC]

Well, the reporter was wrong, it was a clean hit. His elbow was tucked into his body.

Wrong again, this a contact game

Well, the reporter was wrong, it was a clean hit. His elbow was tucked into his body.

Bull. Elbow was clearly up, and the major part of the injury-causing contact.
Now, one can try to excuse the reason for the elbow coming up, which is more bull, but it does not take an expert to know whether a human being's elbow is tucked to his side or extended.
Ray was right. I just wish he'd said, "I have eyes."

You are so ****ing wrong it's unbelievable, arm tucked into body until after impact. Clean hit, period. But because it happened to somebody playing in Pittsburgh the fanboy in you comes out. Now that is laughable. Leopold had his head down, it was a north south hit and Sutton is about 5 inches taller than him.

I believe you compared this to Cooke's hit on Savard, if you truly believe this, than I suggest you start watching a little more hockey outside of your beloved Pens.

okay, not sure why you are getting so worked up. But this kind of hit - and its arguable about whether Sutton's elbow made the main contact - is what is being discussed -- that the checking player has to have some measure of recognition that the hit could be exactly what it was.
Sutton can hit Leopold, but he doesn't have to come gliding in from 10 feet and ****ing destroy the guy, head down or not.
The fact Sutton's momentum takes him stumbling into the boards shows how reckless the hit was

Bull. Elbow was clearly up, and the major part of the injury-causing contact.
Now, one can try to excuse the reason for the elbow coming up, which is more bull, but it does not take an expert to know whether a human being's elbow is tucked to his side or extended.
Ray was right. I just wish he'd said, "I have eyes."

You are so ****ing wrong it's unbelievable, arm tucked into body until after impact. Clean hit, period. But because it happened to somebody playing in Pittsburgh the fanboy in you comes out. Now that is laughable. Leopold had his head down, it was a north south hit and Sutton is about 5 inches taller than him.

I believe you compared this to Cooke's hit on Savard, if you truly believe this, than I suggest you start watching a little more hockey outside of your beloved Pens.

okay, not sure why you are getting so worked up. But this kind of hit - and its arguable about whether Sutton's elbow made the main contact - is what is being discussed -- that the checking player has to have some measure of recognition that the hit could be exactly what it was.
Sutton can hit Leopold, but he doesn't have to come gliding in from 10 feet and ****ing destroy the guy, head down or not.
The fact Sutton's momentum takes him stumbling into the boards shows how reckless the hit was

It the Pittsburgcentric BS that Twoback spews.

I also think you're wrong, it's a contact sport. How else is he suppose to hit Sutton? Sutton is 5 or 6 inches bigger than Leopold and Leopold has his head down. It was not a blindside hit and Leopold should never be skating through the neutral zone with his head down like that.