Brent Sutter and Cognitive Dissonance

Here's Brent Sutter on Dion Phaneuf's hit to Kyle Okposo last night:

"There has been some disrespect brought into the game from player to player. That's something I've said for 10 years... In today's game it's considered a clean check. And yet it's a very dangerous check. When a player is vulnerable like that, you're putting yourself in a position to injure another player."

Wait... no... that was Brent Sutter on Doug Weight's check to his son Brandon Sutter. Well then let's see what Brent Sutter actually said about Dion Phaneuf's hit to Kyle Okposo last night:

"That's part of Dion's game. When he sees that open ice, Dion has to use it. It's one part of his game that makes him a unique player. You never like to see anybody get hurt obviously, and it's too bad that happened, and hopefully we've been told, he's going to be okay. But Dion still can't pass up that hit."

Huh. I guess the main difference is that the Weight check was one-on-one while Phaneuf hit a guy that had already been engaged by two other players. Thus, Phaneuf's hit deserves no criticism. Or maybe it's that the preseason is a higher stakes environment than the regular season since Phaneuf is probably fighting for his job with guys like Anton Stralman. Maybe I'll just give Sutter the last word:

"I probably got knocked out 10 to 11 times in my career and played through it. I'm not saying that's a good thing. That's why I'm so screwed up today. You can write that, too."