The Ushering-In of the Dan Carcillo Era...

Since Tuesday, I was planning a retrospective on Chris Simon's career, complete with YouTube videos of his 8 suspensions. However, I could only find videos from his latest suspensions - the Ryan Hollweg stickball swing and the Jarkko Ruutu ankle stomp. We've all seen those enough that we should have them memorized by now, so no need to beat a dead ... horse? Is that the expression? A dead horse?

So, instead of videos, my words.

1) A slash to the head of Dennis Vial, 1994. 5 games

2) Calls Mike Grier a very bad word for black folks after Grier makes a comment about Simon being Native AmericanCanadian, 1997. 3 games 

3) Cross-checks Peter Popovic's neck in the playoffs, 2000. 1 game (Note: There was a video of this but it was in a Simon tribute video that I didn't want to post.)

4) Elbows Anders Eriksson, 2001. 2 games

5) As a Ranger, protects his teammates. Ruslan Fedotenko hits high and skates away, Simon turns away from the play and cross checks him down, then Todd Bertuzzi's him while Tank is hurt on the ice, 2004. 2 games

6) Now a Flame, knees Sergei Zubov, 2004. 2 games

7) Paul Bunyon's Hollweg after diagnosing himself with a concussion due to jumping into the boards to draw a penalty, 2007. 25 games (Note: I saw it happen while everyone else was watching the puck, and single-handedly started the "Asshole" chant.)

8) Steps on everyone's least favorite silver-medalist's ankle while getting off the ice, 2008. 30 games

I was surprised there wasn't a video of him attacking Fedotenko. It was brutal, barely provoked, and a sign of things to come. He snapped "defending his team" and could have seriously injured someone. A 2-game suspension for that was useless, just like Chris Pronger's slap on the wrist for stepping on someone this year like Simon did. 

He also should have been suspended for attacking Nick Kypreos in the 1995 playoffs. The 8th-seeded Rangers were about to beat the 1st-seeded Nordiques in the first round, and Simon runs Kypreos into the boards with a vicious cross-check. No suspension, obviously, and the Rangers won the series 10 minutes later. Kypreos said that he was disappointed in Simon, but the fact that he had all summer to not play hockey was vengeance enough.

Well, good riddance, Chris Simon. I hope you and Alex Korolyuk get along nicely. Now, go on, attack Alexei Yashin next year in Russia.

Oh, and I did find one good video. Rick Tocchet destroying Simon in a fight...