« Monday & Tuesday, 10/18-19 Press. | Main | Photo galleries »
evanecenses songsOctober 19, 2005
Wednesday, 10/19 Press.
Today Bruce Garrioch brings us more from the Mad Kicker of Kanata:
"I don't think there was anything I could have said that would have changed their minds because they were already made up on what they were going to give me," said Havlat. "I think they looked at my past record and decided they were going to give me five games right after it happened. There wasn't really much I could say to have anything different happen." [...]
"I just want everybody to know that I wasn't trying to hurt anybody and I've never tried to hurt anybody when I've played hockey," said Havlat. "People should know that about me. I'm not that type of player," said Havlat.
"Nobody has ever gotten hurt when these things happened. The players who I've had these (incidents) with have played on the next shift and they've never missed a game, but what can I do? There's nothing I can do. I'm not going to complain (about the length) of the suspension because nothing is going to change now." [...]
Havlat, who will lose $66,000 in salary because of the banishment, said practising until he can return to the lineup Oct. 30 against Philadelphia will not be pleasant.
"This is not going to be fun ... not fun at all," he said. "You want to be on the ice with your teammates and not watching from the stands. I didn't mean to hurt the team by doing this either."
---
Allen Panzeri was prompted to make Havlat the poster boy for the immaturity of the Senators in the Citizen. Havlat-specific snips:
Then there was the goal that New Jersey's Jeff Friesen scored in 2003 to win the Eastern Conference for the Devils.
Patrick Lalime took a lot of heat for allowing the goal, but Havlat was later widely faulted for not staying with the player he was checking: Friesen. [...]
Havlat practised with the team yesterday. He also had talks with coach Bryan Murray and Muckler in the wake of his suspension, and, from the look on his face when asked about those discussions, it was clear they weren't pleasant.
"It wasn't good (Monday) and it's not good (yesterday)," he said, of the way he was feeling. "It's going to take time, for sure. The only thing I can do now is train and get ready for the first game I can play.
"None of these days are good because I can't play."
He said again there was no excuse for kicking Gill, even though, at 6-5, Gill towers over him. "He's a big guy and he plays the way he plays," Havlat said. "He did his job. There was nothing wrong with him."
Posted by jz at October 19, 2005 12:44 PM