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McSorley breaks his silence on the Brashear incident

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tarheelhockey said:
The one thing I really disagree with here is that he wasn’t prepared. None of what he said sounded like a gut reaction on live radio. It sounded to me like he walked in knowing exactly what he was going to say, down to the phrasing of his requests to pivot to another topic. It all sounded to me very much like someone who has spent time being coached by a PR agent and rehearsing his talking points (which could also just be a reflection of having talked about it a lot for 20 years).
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Or just that he would not have thought a vast amount of what he would say if asked in the shower, car drive, etc... for a good part of his life around that incident, seem impossible...

He went to court... he went to a nhl hearing about it, he is a public figure, the incident made national news... even with 0 PR coaching or never talking about it.... chance are he would have played that kind of moment a lot in his own head.
 
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Nona Di Giuseppe said:
it knocked Brashear out. do you realize how often Brashear was punched in the head and not knocked out.

it is clearly top 3 most egregious 'stick work' plays of all time
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Wow, I don't see that at all. I don't know how old you are, but by the time I was about 14 (1990), I'd probably seen five or six stick-incidents worse than McSorley on Brashear. As noted, McSorley on Bullard (1988) was, to me, much worse than the Brashear incident, not only by the stick-work itself but also because it was completely unpremeditated.

But I suppose this is a pointless discussion. As Huey Lewis once said, "bad is bad".
 
tarheelhockey said:
It all sounded to me very much like someone who has spent time being coached by a PR agent and rehearsing his talking points (which could also just be a reflection of having talked about it a lot for 20 years)
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I’ve done media prep as part of my job for a couple of decades. His answers were textbook examples of what not to do if you want to shut down a line of questions. Don’t get angry, and don’t get defensive. He was a little of the first and a lot of the second.
 
The Panther said:
Wow, I don't see that at all. I don't know how old you are, but by the time I was about 14 (1990), I'd probably seen five or six stick-incidents worse than McSorley on Brashear. As noted, McSorley on Bullard (1988) was, to me, much worse than the Brashear incident, not only by the stick-work itself but also because it was completely unpremeditated.

But I suppose this is a pointless discussion. As Huey Lewis once said, "bad is bad".
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Im old enough to have watched 80s and 90s hockey and I'm sorry, but I"m calling bullshit on seeing "five or six stick-incidents" worse than this one. idk if you're a McSorely fan or what, but it doesn't not check out.

I'd rank worst stick accidents as follows:

1) McSorley on Brashear
2) Maki VS Green (1969 hockey stick duel, fractured skull, charges pressed)
3) Simon on Hollweg
4) Could be several from here, but prob Brown on Sandstrom, May on Heize, Hextall etc

To be clear, poking someone with your stick isn't as bad as two-hand wielding it like a sword and hitting someone in the head.
 
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Crosby2010 said:
McSorley is not anywhere near a HHOFer guys. Nor was he ever being floated as such. Led the NHL in plus/minus in 1991, which was nice, but he was a serviceable defenseman, was on some pretty good teams and certainly was more valuable than his stats show from an enforcer standpoint but he definitely wasn't elite.

One of my issues with how McSorley gets labelled is as if he was intending to do it. I don't think he was, I think he meant to hit high, like the shoulder or something, but not the head. He looked ready, almost prepared for Brashear to turn around, so my thought is that he never wanted to whack him in the head. How often did Marty do cheap shots anyway? Not sure I saw any others of his.

Also, there is a forgotten slash that happened just a month or so later that was worse than this one. Scott Niedermayer slashed Peter Worrell in the head in what looked like from just a scrum along the boards. It was harsh, hard to say that it wasn't deliberate. I'll never forget Worrell's reaction, it was priceless. It was one of those "Are you serious bro?" types of looks he gave Niedermayer. Then he fights him but by then Niedermayer had a lot of his buddies jumping in to help, because he'd have been seriously ragdolled. Anyway, I always thought this one was worse, but Niedermayer just got 6 games. Worrell didn't get hurt which was probably the biggest reason why.

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He knew exactly what he was doing. He skated over, zero distractions, complete control over everything but his temper. He's an NHL player; even a mediocre one like him can control his stick well enough to avoid someone's head if they wanted to.

McSorely did many cheap shots.

How can you think a hit to a helmet is worse than a two handed blindsided whack to the temple/face?
 
Nona Di Giuseppe said:
He knew exactly what he was doing. He skated over, zero distractions, complete control over everything but his temper. He's an NHL player; even a mediocre one like him can control his stick well enough to avoid someone's head if they wanted to.

McSorely did many cheap shots.

How can you think a hit to a helmet is worse than a two handed blindsided whack to the temple/face?
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Because I can see he was trying to hit him high and it glanced off of his shoulder. If you watch the replay you can see it. McSorley did re-iterate that it wasn't what he intended to do. Just out of curiousity though, how many cheap shots did he give? He was normally thought to be an honourable player/enforcer out there.
 
Nona Di Giuseppe said:
Im old enough to have watched 80s and 90s hockey and I'm sorry, but I"m calling bullshit on seeing "five or six stick-incidents" worse than this one. idk if you're a McSorely fan or what, but it doesn't not check out.

I'd rank worst stick accidents as follows:

1) McSorley on Brashear
2) Maki VS Green (1969 hockey stick duel, fractured skull, charges pressed)
3) Simon on Hollweg
4) Could be several from here, but prob Brown on Sandstrom, May on Heize, Hextall etc

To be clear, poking someone with your stick isn't as bad as two-hand wielding it like a sword and hitting someone in the head.
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Bullards injury was more serious injury than any on that list except the Maki/Green one.
 
McSorely talks about this all the time lol, it's basically what he's known for and why he's somewhat relevant

Still mad the Rangers signed Brashear 2 months after that horrific cheap shot on Blair Betts in the playoffs.
 
As for ranking worst sticks, it depends if one go just by result or what they decide the intent was, if it was trying to poke him high on the arm and got to the head.... it was a dangerous and irresponsible act that turned really bad.

But that not the same as the voluntary trying to injure sticks, a bit like Bertuzzi-Moore, one of the worst result hockey act wise, Chara-Pacioretty, etc... but those were in part badluck, could of inch of difference and no one talk abouts.

Clarke on Kharlamov, some 6 inch directly and aimed at the face near the eyes, it is ok to consider those worst, specially for someone that think he aimed the shoulder and not the head, which is not crazy.
 
I remember this two-handed slash to the face about 10-15 years ago. It was in the AHL or perhaps juniors, and the victim lay convulsing on the ice. I thought it was one of the Kostitsyn brothers, but I couldn't find anything on the internet when I checked just now. Anyone remember this? It was beyond dirty.
 
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MeHateHe said:
I don't agree at all. The biggest reason he was invited to this thing was because he was infamous; the focus was always going to be on the thing that made him infamous. Keep in mind that that incident was huge news in Vancouver - for days after it happened and then again when it wound up in court. A lot of people would have wanted to hear him talk about it. As for the interviewers going too far, if McSorley doesn't act like a victim, that line of questioning would have petered out on its own. Arguing that he didn't hit Brashear in the head, that Brashear was a coward, that that one guy over there agrees with him ... that's the kind of thing that will just lead to more questions.

Again, had he just said: "I was trying to get him to fight and I didn't mean to hit him in the head. I feel bad about that. I'm glad he didn't end up with a long-term injury, but I was careless and it happened." Then to the question of whether he's spoken to Brashear: "No, the truth is I never had much of a relationship with him before that happened. Fighters often develop a level of mutual respect, and so I have good relationships with some guys, but Brashear and I never developed that relationship. Nothing against him, but we just don't."

He does that, and the interview probably pivots to other stuff.

Here's the thing. McSorley was paid for his appearance at the Giants game, and part of the contract was almost certainly that he do media in advance. That he wasn't prepared at all for even a couple of questions about this just completely boggles my mind. I assume he has an agent who would have booked this. Why they wouldn't just do that basic legwork - I can't figure it out.

The really funny thing is that a tamer interview probably would have not gotten nearly as much attention. I don't know if this clip got shared around in Canucks social media circles, but if it did, him being defensive would have been shared a lot more frequently than him just being straight up or him not being asked about it at all. If the intent of media is get attention and drive people to the rink, asking him a bunch of questions that didn't get a reaction would have been worse for the promotion that he was hired for.
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I listen to these guys regularly on my morning drive, and they have never really been the kind to provoke, or play the role of shock radio.

I think the hosts were in a no win situation. It is the first time I recall mcsorely talking about that incident in the local market, and it has become infamous. The hosts were aware of this and if they did not pursue it the way they did, the audience would have criticized them.

Mcsorely would be naive to think that the incident wouldn't be a main talking point. This is vancouver, the scene of the play..... not moose jaw, Saskatchewan.
 
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