Ruutu vs McCarthy

Make no mistake about it, Ruutu knew exactly what he was doing with the knee shot.. Once dirty, always dirty. He is a punka$$ bytch!!! Always has been, always will be. Great job by McCarthy. And I say this as a fan of the Penguins...

kudos to mccarthy for sticking up for his guy, right thing to do

not a dirty hit, but still an appropriate response by McCarthy.

What a ****ing dirty knee hit...

ouch of atl!

Jarkko Ruutu got a penalty for being Jarkko Ruutu. The officiating last night was a joke. Ruutu kept his gloves on and threw no punches, plus no penalty for the incidental knee to knee contact was issued until after the non-fight fight. The refereeing in the NHL is dispicable at best, it makes the NFL referees look good. It's not just with any particular team, its all around the NHL. The pisspore officiating needs to stop. Last year I thought they had actually improved but they have drastically regressed in the 07-08 season. The linesman have been pure crap too.

How could anyone call it anything but a draw. There was NO fight.

Correct response by McCarthy whether or not Ruutu did it on purpose, which I suspect he did.

So typical of Ruutu to turn away and turtle. Reminds me of his ex teammate the P.O.S. Matt Cooke.

this is bull. theres no way this should be considered a fight. ruutu went for a clean hit and kovulchuk tried to flee and left his knee out there. i understand mccarthy protecting his star but dont start throwing punches at someone that doesnt know theyre fighting. i have a feeling these 2 will go at it again and ruutu will have the upper hand.

i call this a draw because i cant possibly give mccarthy a win for cheapshots.

No real fight, Ruutu never dropped his mitts. Can't really call it a draw though.

Crap fight and an even worse call by the refs.

This was one of the worst calls I have seen in NHL history. Foremost, Ruutu never extends his leg and is actually attempting to hit Kovey high. Kovalchuk's slipping to the left to avoid the hit causes the injury. Kneeing, unlike tripping, cannot be called if it is done accidentally. There has to be intent, and there was not.

However, I can still understand the referee's screwing up that call. A player with a bad reputation hurts one of the NHL's best, and the Thrashers react. Regardless, Ruutu gets five for fighting without even dropping his stick let alone his gloves or throwing a punch. Simply abhorrent. The officials should be embarassed and Toronto should come down hard on this simply awful call. I cannot believe the TSN feed I was watching. The color guy talked for a minute about how it was after the whistle, then realized it wasn't, and covered up by saying Ruutu should have let up because he knew it was a delayed offside.

pwned

Ruutu, you're a punk. Stand up if you're going to cheap shot a guy like that.