First of all, the league wide complaining about officiating is an indictment of how unprofessional and incompetent it is. Pretty rare when a game goes by and there aren’t complaints by one team or the other. And in this game both team’s fan base was pissed off about the officiating. If the league embraces gambling on the games they seriously need to fix this because the refs impact outcomes.
The hit was not a legal hit, it was a smidge late. Nothing to freak out about. It was not predatory. It wasn’t from behind, targeting the head, involving the elbow or stick. The guy was facing the oncoming player and Sam squared him off. The player getting hit has some responsibility to protect themselves and didn’t. You have an emotional scrum at one end with ejections. Then Sam hits the ice after a spear? Sam plays a hard game with a nasty edge. Come on you dummy be smarter.
The hit may draw a fine or at worse one game. The timing may work against Sam as it was unnecessary. The same way Kane challenging the bench, the Dell slash and the two hander slash from Labanc we’re unnecessary. It was a super game and highly emotional. I wouldn’t change a single thing.
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