BY ADAM MC LEAN

Today Liambas is trying to pick up the pieces following a hellish week for the 20-year-old, who made headlines across the country for his devastating body check Oct. 30 - a hit that put Kitchener Rangers defenceman Ben Fanelli, 16, into intensive care.

A year-long suspension handed down from Ontario Hockey League commissioner David Branch on Wednesday effectively ended his junior hockey career, but it is the lasting emotional scars Liambas says he'll have to skate through.

If you haven't seen the video on YouTube, the hit was delivered to the unsuspecting Fanelli, stationed behind the net and delivering a pass up ice.

A left-handed shot looking to his right from behind the goal, Fanelli apparently never saw Liambas approaching from his left side. The collision with the 200-pound Liambas left the 177-pound player motionless on the ice with a fractured skull, fractured orbital bone and facial lacerations, following his head hitting the glass partition above the boards and then crashing against the ice, minus a helmet.

"Everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. It's terrible. I have really mixed emotions about everything," Mr. Liambas said on Thursday in an interview with the Toronto Star.

"First and foremost I feel terrible for Ben, for what he and his family are going through. It doesn't matter whether I was right or wrong or deserved to be suspended. I did that to him. I put that 16-year-old boy in hospital."

Fanelli spent close to a week in the intensive care unit at Hamilton General Hospital, but was released and moved to a private room on Thursday.

The hit has garnered a wave of responses from bloggers, pundits and hockey fans alike, many backing Liambas as a victim in the devastation result that a clean hit can produce.

Others including those who left harsh and anonymous messages on Liambas' Facebook site have vilified the player as a "goon" or a "dirty player", pointing to Liambas and his style of play, as what is wrong with hockey today.

Erie Otters assistant general manager Shawn Waskiewicz stresses that Liambas is neither a good or dirty player, but rather a good teammate, top student and an exemplary member of the community.

"People who say those things don't know Michael as a person and they don't know what a quality guy he is," Mr. Waskiewicz stressed to The Liberal over the phone from Erie, Pennsylvania.

"He is a straight-A university student and over the years he has done incredible charity work in Erie. I mean, the guy reads to sick kids at the local hospital two days a week.

"This is an unfortunate situation for both boys and their families. Obviously the main concern is the health of Ben (Fanelli), but I know Michael has really been shaken by all of this," Mr. Waskiewicz added.

Liambas said that while he believes his check was clean and no different than others he's thrown during his OHL career, he has no plans to appeal the suspension, fearing it would make his family look bad and the Fanellis feel even worse.

"Just last week I was on Cloud Nine. I had missed some games with injuries, but I was back playing a game I love. I felt part of it again. Now I can never go back," Liambas told The Star, with his hockey future unknown.

"I would never have thought I had the power to do that to another human being, but I'm having trouble understanding what the lesson is. But what's done is done. I just hope one day he and his family can forgive me," he added.

As of Thursday, Liambas had not spoken to the Fanellis, though he has sent personal letters to Ben and his teammates.

Liambas has received letters of support from some of Fanelli's teammates, as well as Pittsburgh Penguins forward and former Erie Otter Mike Rupp.

As of press time Liambas had not returned The Liberal's phone calls.

- with files from the Toronto Star.