Talk Hockey

Ryan Miller hadn't started since he suffered a concussion on Nov. 12 when Milan Lucic collided with him. Last night, Miller returned, but he wasn't given a very pleasant welcome from Nashville's Jordin Tootoo. Tootoo crashed the net and ran into Miller. Miller, obviously very frustrated, took exception and began punching Tootoo as him and his teammates piled onto the Predators forward. Tootoo, after the game, said that he didn't intend to charge at Miller. But the fact that Tootoo's a repeat offender, that would easily go against him.

"I was driving the net and I got a little shove from behind. That's the last thing I want to do, is run the goalie over and put my team down," Tootoo said. "It is what it is. But I'm skating hard, I drop my shoulder in towards the net, and clearly I tried to jump out of the way. There was no intent to charge at him. That's all I can say."

Tootoo got a major for charging and game misconduct for the hit. Sabres coach Lindy Ruff thinks the league should take a look at this and possibly hand out a suspension.

"What happened in the game is a joke. It's a joke. All it does is just prove the fact right, that when I said it was open season (on goaltenders), it appears it is open season," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "You get a guy that comes off a concussion, and you've got Jordin Tootoo — Jordin Tootoo running over your goaltender? We used to get a two-minute power play for that. We got a one-minute power play out of that. That's a joke."

You tell me. Was this a deliberate play by Jordin Tootoo to get Ryan Miller hurt? Or was it an accident?

The Sabres ended up winning the game 3-2 thanks to an unbelievable save by Miller in the third.




*Update: Tootoo has been supended two games for his hit on Miller. See the explanatiion video here.