Passion will for sure boil over in sports. But for me this went well beyond acceptable blowing off steam. The only difference between this and a total pr disaster for the nhl is lack of an injury which was just blind luck.
I grew up on 80s BOA too and there were lots of fights, elbows and stick work but I never saw a guy who didn't want to fight get pummelled like that from behind. Its revisionist history to say the game changed and got soft and this stuff was the norm.
And before people say it, yes there were plenty of guys running around doing the same crap like Tikk and Fleury who refused to fight 99% of the time yet the code still didnt permit jumping a guy from behind.
I'd like to see 5 games. I expect 2. Nhl from a marketing perspective probably won't want him out for what will now be a marquee game but increasingly face pressure to address any kind of violence that could be held up in CTE litigation as example of condoning behaviour causing head injuries.
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