When the Pens tied it late, I thought 100% this series was over. The Caps would have been too rattled to do anything in OT and would go down 3 nothing in the series.
I think this could be the adversity the Caps needed to overcome to become a champion. We shall see.
Regarding Niskanen the best way to describe it is unfortunate incident. In Playoff hockey, almost anything goes in front of the net. So yes, Ovi's slash was "bad" but again, in playoffs you can molest players in front of the net a lot harder than regular season. What's unfortunate is that his slash turned Crosby around and tripped him up a little which led him to fall directly into Niskanen. To me it appeared Niskanen was committed to a clean check, but the falling Crosby meant he made contact with stick first. You would expect in a true cross check or a malicious cross check, Niskanen hands would be further apart.
You need to be in control of your stick and body on the ice, but since I don't deem it malicious, I would say no suspension.
|