Colorado College center Nick Dineen (above) maintains he was the victim of a “cheap shot” from Denver left wing Jason Zucker in a Feb. 4 game in which he endured a concussion, and in a strange twist, if Zucker had been suspended, he too wouldn’t have been injured.
Dineen was knocked out in the first period of a 2-2 tie at World Arena that gave CC the Gold Pan, crushed so hard by Zucker that he admitted he doesn’t remember grimacing in pain on the ice, talking to Tigers trainer Jason Bushie or skating to the locker room. After Dineen was demolished by Zucker, he lost track of pretty much everything until Bushie was doing a concussion test on him. Even then, his head felt like an indescribable haze.
CC was on the penalty kill when Dineen headed toward the corner with Zucker in pursuit. “I went to get the puck, and I was kind of turned toward the boards, and Zucker came in, and left his feet, and elbowed me right in the back of the head,” said Dineen, whose head struck the boards as he crumbled to the ice. Zucker didn’t draw a penalty for the blow.
Asked if he perceived the hit by Zucker as being dirty, Dineen said, “Yeah, I did. He left his feet, and it was pretty obvious from the tape that both of his elbows hit the back of my head. … If it was a clean hit and someone got the best of me clean, it would have (stunk) to be out. It’s never enjoyable to get hit with a cheap shot and then miss 2 ½ games.”
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association reviewed the incident – at the request of CC coach Scott Owens – for a possible suspension because there was contact to the head, but the league ruled that even though Zucker was off the ground, with his hands in the air, he wasn’t targeting Dineen. Zucker got off the hook, and since Dineen had a concussion, he was forced to miss last weekend’s trip to Bemidji State – a pair of losses for the Tigers.
Ironically, Zucker, a 2010 second-round draft pick by the Minnesota Wild who captained the U.S. at the world junior championships, went down Friday against Minnesota, a game he wouldn’t have participated in if the WCHA suspended Zucker for his crack on Dineen. He was drilled against the glass by Minnesota left wing Kyle Rau, the younger brother of former CC center Chad Rau and a teammate of Zucker at world juniors, and after Zucker lay on the ice for several minutes, Rau was ejected and later suspended for a game.
Dineen didn’t see Zucker coming, and Zucker never saw Rau hunting him down. Zucker sent Dineen spiraling into the boards, and Rau pinned Zucker against the boards between the team benches. And Dineen was clocked in the head by Zucker, while replays showed that Rau rocked Zucker in the upper chest, maybe also in the neck and lower head. So if Rau was suspended for hitting Zucker, why wasn’t Zucker suspended for hitting Dineen?
Minnesota coach Don Lucia told the Star Tribune, “You can go back to incidents (across the WCHA) – what deserves extra and what doesn’t? … Had Zucker got up, would (Rau) have gotten suspended? I don’t know. But he didn’t.” Lucia added the WCHA is “looking at player safety right now. … Ultimately, we have to make sure we protect the players.”
Contact Brian Gomez: 719-636-0256 or brian.gomez@gazette.com. Facebook: Brian Gomez. Twitter: @gazettehockey. Google+: Brian Gomez. YouTube: Colorado College Hockey, Covered by The Gazette. For the CC homepage, visit www.gazette.com/sections/sports/cchockey. For the CC blog, visit http://cchockey.freedomblogging.com.
[...] Minnesota’s Kyle Rau received a one-game suspension last weekend for a hit on Denver’s Jason Zucker. From the Colorado Springs Gazette is a note on Colorado College center and captain Nick Dineen talking about a “cheap shot” he received from Zucker here. [...]
Really don’t care, the hit is what it is, it’s hockey and hockey is a hard sport, you will get hurt!! But we do need is Nick, Scott and Josh back A.S.A.P.. Not one but all three!
Kind of an interesting perspective…… I think that there is a pecking order in the WCHA as far as the refs go and the calls that are or are not made. I realize that life is not perfect but MN, WI, ND and DU generally receive every possible break (except when the play one another then the refs have a big conundrum). After the scrum in the MN ND saturday tilt nothin. So it is absolutely no surprise that the league reviewed and concluded nothin!
My biggest gripe is that there’s no consistency in how the WCHA determines what’s worthy of a suspension and what isn’t. It almost seems like the on-ice reaction of the injured player factors into the league’s decision. Plus, in this case, the CC-Denver game wasn’t on TV, so nobody saw Dineen get crushed by Zucker, yet the Denver-Minnesota game was on NBC Sports Network, and the video ended up on YouTube, so Rau’s hit on Zucker was there for all to see. I realize that you can’t penalize every hit, and you shouldn’t be penalized every time you hit somebody who gets hurt, but there’s supposed to be an emphasis on checking from behind and hits to the head, and I just wish there was something closer resembling a standard. I do think that Dineen will be able to play this weekend, and Thorimbert, Winkler and McDermott will probably play as well.
These kids are college students first and foremost and these hits to the head have to stop. That high school kid in MN from St Margaret’s that is paralyzed from a check from behind is an example. These STUDENTS are going to go on in life and mainly do other things than hockey shouldn’t be thrown into potentially deadly situations for our pleasure – this isn’t the NHL where it’s their vocation. Statements are always put up here that “hockey is a rough sport so suck it up” which is pretty laughable. Easily said from people who haven’t played anywhere near the level of NCAA D1 and wouldn’t even know what it’s like.
DU was definitely aggressive with hits the first 30 minutes of the CC-DU game on the Saturday night. They were going after Rylan Schwartz and Thorimbert as well if you remember the game. They took out Thorimbert as well.
The refs do favor DU, UND, Minny and Wisc without a doubt.
But I will say this, in hockey when you are near the boards you need to protect yourself. It was a cheap shot and shouldn’t have happened, but in hockey you have to be ready for everything.
DU stepped up and swept Minnesota without Zucker and CC lost twice to Bemidji without Dineen and Thorimbert. I’m a CC fan, but someone needs to step up and help the team win, the Schwartz brothers can’t do it all. Howe had a chance at Bemidji…..now he’ll probably never play again, which is fine with me – go Josh! And then Krushelnyski, Rapuzzi, Skalbeck, Civitarese, the freshman no one filled the shoes of Dineen, Winkler or Boivin at Bemidji….
We need 2 wins this weekend vs. Omaha!!!
Along the lines of what CCFan said, have been looking forward to several players stepping up and filling some shoes, still waiting.
[...] Colorado College’s Nick Dineen says his concussion injury was a result of a “cheap shot” from Denver’s Jason Zucker. From Brian Gomez, Colorado Springs Gazette. [...]
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[...] that this article came out today, it’s good that this is being brought up. Brian Gomez, Eye of the Tigers — Colorado College center Nick Dineen (above) maintains he was the victim of a “cheap [...]
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[...]Dineen: Hit that injured him a ‘cheap shot’ from Zucker – Eye of The Tigers : Colorado Springs Gazette, CO[...]…