I think the situation with Tkachuk isn't so much this specific act but more along the lines of rubbing salt in a wound when perhaps it didn't need to be done in the eyes of the league.
We all know and we all love the game that he plays but the truth of the matter is that he does push the envelope in same cases and when you play with fire, once in a while you will get burnt.
I know when he had his beef with Doughty in LA a lot of people were on board, loved it and didn't think too much about it. On subsequent broadcasts, interviews and other media reports I do recall hearing that Flames management had very stern talks with him about his conduct and he has been warned several times from the league about taking it too far.
Yesterdays incident I suspect was loved by Red Wings fan's on what Mantha did to Hamanic but that doesn't make it right overall. If you watch the video closely you can see Andreas Athanasiou grab Hamanic's from behind while he was going at it with Mantha and than Justin Abdelkader pushed him back and made a reference to "leave them alone"
Like I said when it comes to Tkachuk I love the guy, he's a heart and soul player and he might even be a future captain but I do think he may get a game or two in this situation. He has developed in the league's mind a little bit of a reputation for some handy work considering he's been in the league a grand total of 13 months
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