First things first, Ryan Hollweg is lucky to be alive.

When Chris Simon took his stick and swung it like a baseball bat at Ryan Hollweg and Hollweg hit the ice, I was pretty sure his career was over, or at the very least his seasoin. He lay there motionless for a couple of minutes, while the Rangers trainer Jim "Rammer" Ramsey attended to him. But he was fine. A couple of stitches to the chin and he's probably ready to go for Saturday's game in Pittsburgh.

But if he got hit a couple of inches lower and the stick broke his windpipe, he'd be dead. And if it was a little higher, he'd have lost an eye or had serious head damage. As it turns out, Hollweg lost all of his 2002-3 season in juniors because of a head injury (something I didn't know until I read E.J. Hradek's column on ESPN.com today [Insider access required]), and this really could have cost him his career, but also the quality of the rest of his life.

The hit was bad. If you haven't seen it, click this link. Simon's been a goon his entire career, so it's not surprising that he'd follow Hollweg's clean check with a stick chop to Hollweg's face. Simon's been suspended five times before, four time for excessive violence and once for allegedly calling a half black player a "nigger." He's a class act.

But I think the classiest part of the whole thing is the Nassau Coliseum's reaction to the hit as Simon was being escorted off the ice. They were applauding! Cheering Simon for his vicious, dirty attack. Islanders fans have always been a pretty classless group, but this was a new low. To see people cheering the injury of a fellow person just because they wear another sweater. It's horrible and by far the worst part of the whole incident.

Labels: hockey, Long Island, New York Rangers