Quote:
Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe
As for people saying that Tkachuk deserved what he got since those hits are dirty, please explain to me what makes them dirty. I agree that they were NASTY, but clean. If Tkachuk hit Kassian in the head during the first hit, his head would have snapped the other way. Think about it - hit that damn ugly melon, and it would have forced it to move AWAY from Tkachuk, not towards him. Obviously the head was NOT the principle point of contact, so the hit is NOT dirty, so the NHL can NOT 'police' that hit, since it is 100% legal by definition.
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I think most reasonable people would agree that both of the Tkachuk hits were borderline. Were they charging?
The NHL rulebook says charging is this:
Charging is a penalty in ice hockey. Rule 42 of the NHL rulebook dictates that charging "shall mean the actions of a player or goalkeeper who, as a result of distance traveled, shall violently check an opponent in any manner. A 'charge' may be the result of a check into the boards, into the goal frame or in open ice."[1] The infraction may warrant any severity of penalty or combination of penalties as the officials deem fit, including a major plus a game misconduct, or suspension if the infraction results in injury to the opposing player.
After reading that I'm not sure if the NHL even knows what charging is.
I always remember hearing and talking about 3 strides. Don't know if that was just a fan invented thing?
I think if the hit were Kassian on Gaudreau or Lucic on McDavid a penalty would have been called. I'd seen big guys bump a smaller guy with half that force and get penalized. Basically anytime Penner started to get physical for instance.
I think that's the type of hit you'd see fans be outraged by if it happened to Gaudreau or Monahan. I didn't care too much because its Kassian and he has been the aggressor on stuff like that in the past so whatever.
Kassian should have took a number and tried to deliver the same type of borderline hit back. He'll probably get suspended. That's fair. I think anyone trying to paint Tkachuk as an innocent in the scenario is a little off base though.