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Originally Posted by Mightyfire89
^^^Yeah, it does read that way, and I’m fine with it. I still don’t think it’s possible that Wideman was in his right mind when that happened. I believe he was concussed and still all messed up from the hit he’d taken a few moments earlier. How does a guy with 800ish games in the nhl, who had almost no history of violent incidents suddenly decide to do something like that to a linesman?
Still makes zero sense to me.
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Personally, I think it did look deliberate, but not intended as strongly as he did. The action really does appear to be a "get the **** out of my way" check.
Did the disoriented state contribute to smashing him too hard? Likely. But did he turn around, see the ref in his way and do something to him? I can't see how you can believe he didn't. I think what really killed Weidman here is the disoriented state combined with being used to hitting hockey players in full gear.
I fully believe he meant to give a little "**** you" hit in a moment of anger, but the force required to give an opposing player a "**** you hit" is about 50 times too hard for an unequipped, unprepared referee.