last night’s niklas kronwall hit on marty havlat is creating some buzz around the nhl. everyone not in chicago is claiming it was a clean hit that did not deserve even a minor penalty not to mention the five minute major and game misconduct krowall recieved. it is awful that havlat was injured on the play, which was not the intent, but what other criteria does a hit need to be considered clean by nhl standards. it wasn’t from behind. check. he didn’t leave his feet until after contact. check. he kept his elbows down. check. he didn’t get the stick up. check. he only took one step. check. the puck was in havlat’s feet. check. havlat looked up and saw him twice, but made the decision to take the hit to make the play, and he did. you are fooling yourself if you think seabrook, byfuglien, or any other blackhawk would not have made the same play on a player coming up the boards with his head down. the intent isn’t to injure it is to make the opposing player pay the price for making the play, so that next time he may not.
now i am from detroit and a long time redwings supporter, but i don’t feel as though i am being a homer, when everyone from cbc, vs., and even barry melrose from espn see the play the same way. i was also concerned with the hit on kronwall by dustin byfuglien that resulted in the scrum afterwards. i wrote a blog a while back about people starting fights after clean hits, and how it could be the downfall of physical play in the nhl. the way the nhl addressed this was with the instigator rule giving the player who starts that nonsense after a hit an extra two and a ten minute misconduct. there was none of that. also the high stick on stuart from byfuglien that sent him for stitches wasn’t called, but we could break down any game call by non-call to see who had the upperhand, and it wouldn’t ever matter. each team has to rise above it. i just don’t want to see every hit called just because it is a “big” hit.
here is brian costello’s blog post about the kronwall call via thehockeynews.com
The Detroit Red Wings absolutely got jobbed on the terrible major and game misconduct penalty to Niklas Kronwall, but the Chicago Blackhawks survived a scare and were deserving of their 4-3 victory in Game 3 Friday.
In case you haven’t seen it by now, Detroit was trailing 2-0 in the first period when Kronwall flattened Martin Havlat with a perfectly timed shoulder check that knocked the Blackhawk out cold.
Predictably, the Hawks bench went wild and Chicago players swarmed Kronwall as Havlat lay prone, exposed and unaware beneath the skirmish.
The immediate reaction of referees Dave Jackson and Dan O’Halloran was proper - no arm in the air, no call. Why would there be? It was as clean as the hockey gods could have blueprinted - stiff shoulder against player with puck. But for some reason - perhaps because Havlat was knocked out or perhaps because the game was in Chicago - Kronwall was given a major and game misconduct.
Appalling. Disgraceful.
