Calkins lets off some steam

I talked to Johnny Calkins about last night's incident not long ago. He's still pretty upset over the whole thing, and you can't blame him.

Here's what he had to say.

On the hit:

"I had the puck on the wall, their D came to me, Dommett was open in the slot and I passed to him. He shot it and then he was watching his shot. From what I saw, it was a late, blindside chicken s*** hit. It was one of those hits you don’t want to see happen to anyone, let alone a guy on your team. You don’t want to see that in hockey whatsoever. It was ugly.

"I just looked back and saw him lying on the ice. He’s not the type of kid to lie there when he’s not hurt, so I knew something major was wrong. He’s more than a teammate to me, he’s my best friend and I’d do anything for him. I lost my cool, and it became personal."

On going after Ducharme:

"I knew what I was getting into when I did it. I knew I‘d get an instigator. That didn’t cross my mind, I didn’t think twice. Anybody else on my team would have done the same thing. There wasn’t any question on what I was doing. There’s a point in hockey when it becomes personal.

"When a 19-year-old kid who has not very much experience in our league does something like that to the leading goal scorer in the league, something’s not right there and something needs to be done."

"Their team was laughing at Dommer when he was skating off the ice. That’s what really got me going in the penalty box. That’s no class, no respect. That whole organization should be embarrassed. It’s just a lack of respect."

On seeing Dommett in the La Ronge hospital:

"It was a rough night for me. I went to the hospital and saw him. He was so positive when I walked in. He put his hand up for me to shake his hand, and I couldn’t even do it. It was tough to see him like that.

"I had a tough enough time with it. I just don’t understand how he’s so positive about it.

"It just depends (recovery time). He’s seeing so many different specialists today (Monday). He hasn’t even got his jaw wired shut yet. It just depends whether they have to put plates in it. It broke on both sides."

On how this affects the Klippers:

"It’s going to be tough. You can’t replace a kid like that. We’ve battled lots of adversity, though. Last year we lost our barn. We’ve got a lot of older guys who can step in and hopefully play a bigger role. We have enough leaders that hopefully can pick up the slack. Personally, with me and Adamyk, it’s going to be hard because we played together for over a year. I’m sure whatever line combinations Larry has will be the right ones.

"There’s some upset people ... You can’t do that. It is personal now. You don’t do that."

"I hope that kid woke up this morning and felt terrible for what he did. It’s tough for (Dommett) in his 20-year-old year. You don’t want to see that."

La Ronge visits Kindersley on Oct. 9. If you have plans for that night, you might want to break them.