Kassian got rocked numerous times and was embarrassed because of it. He’s supposed to be a tough hard nosed gritty player and was clowned all night. It wasn’t the ‘type’ of hit that bothered him, it was the fact he was dummied numerous times so he selfishly reacted.
The second hit was perfectly clean. The first one also appeared clean (his head was wrapped around Tkachuk upon contact so obviously wasn’t the primary or even secondary point of contact), however, in today’s NHL you cannot make those big open ice hits to a vulnerable player like in the past. It likely should have been called for a penalty. Oddly enough though, by his own admission, Kassian says he’s an old school player - which suggests there shouldn’t be a problem with the hit based on his own mentality of how to play the game.
He just wanted to fight tkachuk for the reasons all people want to fight after a clean hit: they’re embarrassed.
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