Quote:
Originally Posted by speede5
I don't think a lot of casual fans, or even more serious ones would have thought what he did was the intent of the rule and worthy of a 10 game suspension. He had barely stepped of the ice and was still being engaged by a player on the ice. One who actually followed him and could have skated away.
This all seems heavy handed to me, but a rule is a rule. I can see 10 games for coming back down the tunnel after play has resumed or jumping off the bench and starting a brawl.
Guys can take someones head off and end their career and only get 4 games. weird logic the NHL has.
And Tkachuk hit him intentionally with the blade of his stick, that's a spear. It wasn't Marchand level spearing but it meets the criteria.
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The intent of the rule is quite literally to prevent exactly what happened here. When shenanigans break loose to the point of line brawl numbers or greater, the officials are drastically outnumbered and need to be able to assess the danger of multiple events and start one by one bringing them to an end.
Getting a player off and directed to the dressing room is one of the most important and effective things an official can do to get things back to order.
From the perspective of a linesman, having removed him from the ice and directed him to leave, you need to know with certainty you no longer need to worry about dealing with that guy.
It is worse when you consider the guy was taken from the penalty box (where he was already secured) and directed to leave for the express purpose of ensuring he physically would not be around after the final buzzer.
Minor hockey kids understand this completely. At any level of pro hockey (if you are actually a pro) you know 100% that trip across the ice from the penalty box is not a time you can ever get involved in something. You are for want of a better term a dead man walking.
This guy coming back out disrupted everything and led to the linesmen being separated and not being able to prevent Mantha taking serious advantage of Hamonic (among other things).
If Tkachuk gets treated harshly, it will likely be for the same concept...not because what he did was a spear (give me a break on that) but because he saw fit to engage a guy who was no longer part of the game in a manner anyone could foresee could lead to him raging and once again becoming a problem.