You’ve heard the comments by now. Mark Recchi was suckered in to saying that the Canadiens exaggerated Max Pacioretty’s injuries in order to get Chara suspended.
After enduring the wrath of pretty much everyone for calling Dr. Mulder’s integrity in to question, Recchi is now trotting out the most predictable of excuses:
“I wanted to take the heat off Z for a day”
So let’s get this right: in the split second that the chump on Boston radio opened the door with his dangerously loaded question: ”let me be more direct – does it bother you that they embellished it obviously?”, Recchi – in that ever so brief instant – decided that he would throw a medical staff that he apparently has the utmost respect for directly under the bus to save his Captain some harrassment? If you believe that, then that makes Recchi a classless dick with no moral compass to speak of. If you believe it was a scripted conversation with the intent of delivering that message, then that makes it even more heinous. Recchi would have then had the chance to find another way to deflect attention from his Captain.
“I think anybody that knows me knows that I have great respect for the Montreal organization. I played five years there. I have great respect for [team physician David] Mulder and the medical staff there”
And that’s how you show them respect? The staff that treated your friend Brian Savage’s broken neck? The staff that treated your friend Saku Koivu for cancer? The staff that treated you during your years as a member of the Canadiens? Sounds like Recchi was given some damage control advice, and it just so happens that it was the easiest excuse in the book.
Did Chara even need to have heat taken off him? It’s not like the big man’s play was circling the drain leading up to the game. In the seven games after the Pacioretty incident, Chara had racked up 2 goals and 5 assists and was a +4. Including last night’s game, he has 2 goals and 8 assists in 8 games, and is +7. Yes, clearly Chara was feeling the heat.
Mercifully the story will end here. But Recchi has left an indelible stain on his reputation. You don’t, for any reason question the integrity of a doctor and his staff that has been beyond reproach for decades, especially when you’ve take advantage of his expertise and care. My own take is that Recchi was fooled by a hack radio host doing what he does best – stir the pot and direct conversations exactly where he wants them to go. Recchi’s honest opinion slipped out in a moment of numbing stupidity and was served up a lob down the middle of the plate to backpedal away from what he said. Sorry Mark, your pathetic excuses ring as hollow as a chocolate easter bunny.
Mark Recchi is still a hall of fame player in my mind, but he’s now also a hall of fame jerk.
