Kellan Tochkin hurt, Ryley Miller suspended, chaos ensues
Published 12:37 pm Friday, December 10, 2010
In the third period of Wednesday’s game at Brandon, Everett’s Kellan Tochkin took a big hit from Brandon’s Ryley Miller. Miller was given a minor penalty for charging, and Tochkin didn’t return to the game.
Well, today all hell’s broken loose over this. Miller was given a two-game suspension, and the Wheat Kings are up in arms over what they thought was a clean hit. There’s a video of the hit in the link, which take’s you to the blog of Brandon broadcaster Bruce Luebke. It also contains an explanation from WHL disciplinarian Richard Doerksen.
Not sure what to make of this myself. Based on the video provided it looks like a pretty good hit to me. But Doerksen said there’s a third camera angle that’s not seen on the clip where it shows Miller left his feet. Since it wasn’t called a major, it was my impression the Tips had to send a tape of the hit to the league for a suspension to happen, though Doerksen’s quotes don’t mention anything about that. Perhaps the third camera view came from Everett’s video of the play.
But all this is secondary as far as Everett is concerned. The most -pertinent information for Everett is that Tochkin has a concussion. That means the Tips will be without their hottest offensive player for at least a week. That’s a big blow for Everett, and it makes the Tips’ task of closing out their road trip out east on a positive note all the more difficult.
