[FanIn80]

Oh god. dino's been waiting for two months to finally be right about Florida losing, now we're never gonna hear the end of it. I mean, even if Florida was winning, we'd still be inundated with "yeah, but..." posts from him - but now it's gonna be nothing but "bahahaha see how right I (finally) was?!"

Annnnyway, here's a few quotes from other players about last night's hit:

It was also a hell of a hit by Tkachuk. It had the hockey world immediately buzzing.

I reached out via text message Monday night to current and former players and a few coaches in the aftermath of the hit, to get their perspective on whether it was clean.

Their answers:

Lightning star and captain Steven Stamkos:

“It was a clean hit. Eichel was in an awkward position at the point of contact, but it was a good hockey hit in my eyes. Glad to see Jack back in the game. I was surprised no one went after Tkachuk, especially given the score of the game. But all is well for Vegas tonight, so a non-issue I guess.”

Former Ducks star and captain Ryan Getzlaf:

“Good, hard hit!!! I have no problem with it. Think it’s a good time for a big hit to try and pump his team up. Didn’t go out of his way at all, just got him in a bad spot.”

Current Eastern Conference NHL player, who requested anonymity:

“Glad Eichel is OK. To me, it was a great hit. It was clean. Eichel saw him last second and was a little surprised and leaned into it instead of absorbing it. The reason he had to get his head down for the split second to find the puck is because he went to one hand on his backhand so he had to take an extra second to look down to coral it and got surprised. On Tkachuk’s part, that’s a skill to be able to hit like that in open ice. There’s a lot that goes into it, like the timing, keeping your elbow down and hitting with shoulder and also using your legs while keeping your feet on the ground. Not as easy as it looks. Glad to see no one is hurt and it was as good of a hit as you can make in my opinion.”

Former Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant:

“From what I saw on TV, Eichel didn’t see him until it was too late. And seemed to stumble a bit, which made the hit look even worse. My view, though, is that it was a clean hit, bad result.”

Former Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau:

“Thought it was hard but not dirty. Eichel was falling. Tkachuk tucked in his arms, Jack saw him coming and stumbled. I didn’t think it was a penalty.”

Current Western Conference NHL player, who requested anonymity:

“I thought the hit was clean. Tucked elbow, shoulder level … wasn’t predatory. It was just unfortunate Eichel toe-picked when he did.”

Blues head coach Craig Berube:

“I thought was a clean hit, shoulder to shoulder. It looked like Eichel just did not see him until right before contact.”

Former Stars star and captain Mike Modano:

“Didn’t help that he (Eichel) toe-picked before he got hit. But it was a clean hit. Open-ice hits are nonexistent anymore, so when they do happen, everyone assumes it was a cheap shot. That hit happened 40 times in the ’99 playoffs.”

So yeah, there’s unanimity here. As there should be. Clean hit all the way, which Eichel himself rather impressively acknowledged after the game Monday.


https://theathletic.com/4585229/2023...ley-cup-final/