I missed Trotz' apology in the local papers, but I'm glad he
apologized. The comment didn't sound like him in the first place.

Thanks for posting the article. Very interesting.

-- George

--- In nashvillepredatorsclub@yahoogroups.com, "Christopher J.
Carlson" <beautypersoni@y...> wrote:
> League issues 'payback'
>
> Trotz regrets choice of words, but applauds suspensions
>
> By PAUL FRIESEN -- Winnipeg Sun
>
> Payback has been served, in the words of Barry Trotz.
>
> But the Nashville Predators head coach admits he shouldn't have
> used the term in the first place.
>
> Trotz, a product of Dauphin and a former U of M Bison, found
> himself in the middle of the NHL's outbreak of violence on the
> weekend.
>
> The Predators' sixth-year boss was less than impressed that Flames
> coach/GM Darryl Sutter sent out his goons for the final three
> seconds of Nashville's 3-1 win in Calgary Saturday night.
>
> The all-too-predictable result was a line brawl that left yet
> another black mark on a league already covered in welts.
>
> "We're trying to clean up the game and (Sutter) keeps trying to
put
> us back in the 1950s," Trotz told reporters after the game. "He
> started it, he wanted it and he got what he wanted. But there will
> be a time and place for payback."
>
> Yesterday, after the league suspended Sutter for two games, Flames
> tough guy Krzysztof Oliwa for three and fined the Flames $50,000
US,
> Trotz expressed regret at his comments.
>
> "I know I shouldn't have used payback," he told The Sun from
> Nashville. "That's one that could be held against you forever. In
> the heat of the battle, you hope there's a retribution in some way,
> and the league enforced that retribution. Payback has now been
> served. I'm done with it."
>
> Trotz is probably lucky he wasn't fined or suspended, too. With
all
> the threats flying around the NHL lately, particularly the ones
made
> by the Vancouver Canucks before the Todd Bertuzzi incident, the
> league should be taking a hard line on talk of revenge.
>
> To Trotz's credit, he admitted he made a mistake.
>
> But don't mistake his contrition for a change of heart.
>
> His own Predators may have more fighting majors than most teams in
> the league, but that doesn't mean Trotz condones the kind of
> premeditated brawling that Sutter's actions seemed to encourage
> Saturday.
>
> "Seeing he went over to Oliwa and was talking to him with three
> seconds to go, I knew there was something up," Trotz said. "I told
> my guys, 'Just back away, back away.' And they tried to. And then I
> read the Calgary papers, and it's a completely different story. I
> guess if you tell yourself enough lies, you'll probably believe
> them."
>
> Sutter may actually believe he sent out his thugs to prevent
> anything from happening, but the actions of the NHL say otherwise,
> and should make coaches think twice before sending out players to
> start something.
>
> "The league did an excellent job," Trotz said. "We broke some new
> ground as a league, putting some onus on the coaches in those
> situations."
>
> As for the apparent spate of recent violence, Trotz subscribes to
> the theory that increased media coverage of the game makes ugly
> incidents appear far more frequent than they really are.
>
> "You see it 100 times, and you'd think every game is like that,"
he
> said. "And it's not."
>
> That may be, but more and more players say things are getting out
> of hand. Predators defenceman Shane Hnidy of Neepawa, a rugged
> player in his own right, says he can't understand why so many
> players are losing control.
>
> "Guys are getting more careless," Hnidy said. "You can play hard
> and physical, but you don't need to get the sticks up and the
sucker
> punches from behind. I know it's a game of emotion, and we're all
> guilty sometimes of acting out of character. But there's got to be
a
> limit to what you do.
>
> "I wish there were simple answers ... but like everyone else, I'm
> searching for them as well."