Toigo's fight for justice

[nivek_wahs]

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/ne...e30cba&k=81277

Toigo's fight for justice
Owner angry that Ellerby isn't suspended for gesture

Steve Ewen, The Province
Published: Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Vancouver Giants owner Ron Toigo isn't happy with the WHL head office and isn't hiding the fact.

Toigo was fuming with news that league-discipline czar Richard Doerksen couldn't find video evidence of Kamloops Blazers defenceman Keaton Ellerby making a throat-slashing gesture at the Giants bench during a routine video check of a penalty-filled 5-1 Vancouver win at the Pacific Coliseum Friday night.

Toigo says the Giants have it on video, and will be sending that to the league in hopes of getting a suspension for Ellerby. He'll also send a cheque along for $500, which is what it costs to get a supplementary discipline review.

"I don't know about angry ... we're more disappointed," Toigo said when asked about his mood. "This is not over with. It has to be looked at in terms of the big picture and what it means to the league. It's not the image the league wants.

"We're not done. This is too big of an issue to be blown off like yesterday's news."

Ellerby, 18, seemed to motioning to Giants winger Michael Wuchterl, 19. He had just easily handled Kamloops rookie winger Alex Rodgers, 17, in a fight. Rodgers was being helped off the ice with a shoulder injury.

Blazers coach Dean Clark told the Kamloops Daily News Monday, though, that Ellerby was reacting to a similar throat-slashing move he was getting from Giants centre Tim Kraus, 19, who was on the bench.

Kraus, who was in among a group of players, couldn't be clearly seen from the press box at the time.

"There was nothing reviewable," said Clark, who talked to Doerksen, a WHL vice-president, on Saturday. "Kraus did the same thing to Ellerby. Kraus did it first."

Toigo denied any involvement from Kraus, saying, "That's always the excuse, somebody else did it first."

Adding to all of this is that Toigo thought the league came down too hard on Giants winger Michal Repik, 18, giving him two games for a checking-from-behind major in a 7-1 win over the Portland Winter Hawks Jan. 31. The defenceman Repik hit, 17-year-old Bo Montgomery, who was helped off the ice but did come back to play that night.

"They have no trouble suspending our best player for an inadvertent act," said Toigo. "This act [by Ellerby] certainly wasn't inadvertent."

steve.ewen@gmail.com

© The Vancouver Province 2007

[Tipped Off]

Cutting their own throats?
Ian Walker, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, February 13, 2007
The Vancouver Giants will be appealing the WHL's decision not to discipline Kamloops' Keaton Ellerby for a throat-slashing gesture at the Giants bench in the final minutes of the Blazers' 5-1 loss to Vancouver Friday. "As a league, we advocate to be responsible for our actions," said Giants owner Ron Toigo. "But when an irresponsible action occurs it turns out to be just lip service."

[old_time_hockey]

This all is starting to smell like the Bertuzzi incident. No action taken by the league. So what is left? Go see if he has the stones to back up his jesture the next time the teams meet. Which I doubt he has.

The thing that will stop revenge is they are locked in a battle for 1st. But if the score of the next game is out of reach one way or another, hope things don't get out of hand.

[Kamfan]

This all is starting to smell like the Bertuzzi incident. No action taken by the league. So what is left? Go see if he has the stones to back up his jesture the next time the teams meet. Which I doubt he has.

The thing that will stop revenge is they are locked in a battle for 1st. But if the score of the next game is out of reach one way or another, hope things don't get out of hand.

Ellerby isn't the toughest guy around but he can handle himself. I'm sure he wouldn't turn down a go with Kraus if offered.

I don't doubt Kraus made the same gesture, but Ellerby made the mistake of being in full view of the crowd when he did it. He probably should get a suspension if he made the same gesture as Worrell did when he got suspended.

[Hunt24]

If you think Ellerby will get off with squaring off with Kraus, you're kidding yourself. I'm sure Milan Lucic will be more than happy to give Ellerby a chance to show how tough he is.

Ask Kyle Beach how that went for him.

[Kamfan]

If you think Ellerby will get off with squaring off with Kraus, you're kidding yourself. I'm sure Milan Lucic will be more than happy to give Ellerby a chance to show how tough he is.

Ask Kyle Beach how that went for him.

Why would Lucic need to fight Kraus's battles any more than Kassian should fight Ellerby's?

[old_time_hockey]

Why would Lucic need to fight Kraus's battles any more than Kassian should fight Ellerby's?

Why did Gretzky has Semenko or McSorley?

You want to be a clown on the ice, you get to pay up to the toughguy. That is the role of the enforcer. If you want to threaten our players, you have to fight Lucic. Doesn't matter how tough you are or you think you are. Makes you think twice before doing something stupid.

This is the exact reason the instigator rule needs to be turfed. That way people would actually have to pay the piper. And people like Beach couldn't get away with the crap that he pulls.

[Hunt24]

I'm not even sure how you got Kraus involved in this. The gesture, according to reports, was made first towards Wuchterl after he destroyed his willing dance partner Rodgers, and then second towards the entire bench. The Kamloops coach has only said that Kraus did it first yet there's no video evidence of that and no Kamloops player has made mention of that since.

If Ellerby's going to run his mouth and do things towards the bench, Lucic will be the guy that answers.

[Kamfan]

OK, you're right. It really should be Wuchterl. Whether he happened to be standing on the ice or the bench at the time Ellerby made the gesture is unimportant. It's been well established he was taking issue with Wuchterl in particular and wasn't gesturing towards the team in general.

[Kamfan]

Why did Gretzky has Semenko or McSorley?

You want to be a clown on the ice, you get to pay up to the toughguy. That is the role of the enforcer. If you want to threaten our players, you have to fight Lucic.

If Ellerby wants to call out Wuchterl for tuning a smaller, younger, non-fighter, he should fight Lucic?