On the Wings

After the hit on Jason Williams, there was a lot of talk about how Raffi Torres felt terrible about it, as he watched the medical team work on him in the corner and talked about it after the game. Well, maybe the talk was true, but any remorse couldn’t have lasted long, as Ansar Khan reports:

Williams said Torres did not say anything to him on the ice during Saturday’s game. No, “Sorry about that, hated to see your face slam to the ice and all the blood spill out,” no “Hope you’re feeling better, too bad you had to be carried off on a stretcher.”

However, two of Torres’ teammates put him to shame:

Instead, Williams said Oilers defenseman Matt Greene came up to him after a whistle and asked him how he felt and forward Ryan Smyth told him it was good to see him back.

Impressive.

Khan goes on to point out that, though the hit was seen as clean by the team, no one went after Torres Saturday. To contrast, he cites the Oilers’ response to Danny Markov’s hit on Jarret Stoll, with Ethan Moreau and Steve Staios going after him over two games, as an example of a team willing to defend itself against physical play.

Khan notes that teams are still unafraid of taking runs at the Wings, even though the team is trying to become more physical.

Good points, Ansar. It does not bode well for their efforts at shedding their old reputation in favor of a new, tougher one, if they can’t even defend one of their own teammates. They may not be shying from physical play so much any more but there’s still a missing dimension.