Coach doubts Sieloff knew who he had hit
Patrick Sieloff had to fend for himself after his hit on Clarke MacArthur on Sunday.
It will be debated all over the media in the next few days whether the hit the Ottawa blue-liner put on the Senators’ winger in Sunday’s scrimmage at Canadian Tire Centre was clean or not, but coach Guy Boucher noted that Sieloff couldn’t have possibly known it was MacArthur because it all happened so fast.
“When you’re sitting in the stands you see lots of space, but that’s not what it’s like on the ice,” Boucher said. “When you’re a player all you see is bodies in front of you, one in front of the other. Things are happening in a fraction of a second. I can guarantee you that if you ask him who was in the corner he has no idea who it was. We were in the stands and I wasn’t even sure who it was.
“When you can see him, it’s because it was pre-meditated, it’s because it’s retaliation and a player is going after someone, but when it happens quickly during a game, you don’t see who it is. Whether it’s in society or in hockey you have to be very careful before laying blame, before pointing fingers.
“There was nothing pre-meditated, nothing exaggerated, but it’s sad because it happened to someone that’s important in the room and someone we wish well because of what happened last year.”
GM Pierre Dorion said he wasn’t going to get into the hit.
“Right now, I don’t care about the hit, I feel for Clarke. That’s what everyone should be worried about,” Dorion said.
Veteran defenceman Dion Phaneuf said he felt for Sieloff as well.
“He doesn’t feel very good. It’s part of the game. It’s not a fun part of the game,” Phaneuf said. “During training camp, when these things happen, and they do happen around the league (when) there’s contact, it’s just disappointing that it happened to Clarke.
Assistant GM Randy Lee sat down with Sieloff, who is known as a physical player, just to talk to him about the incident.