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Old 03-20-2017, 07:27 AM   #34
manwiches
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My take for what it's worth.

It was a shoulder shrug, and yes, while his shoulder hit Doughty in the face, Doughty sold that hard. Both were battling leading up to that (and have history battling in the past games). Doughty pretty much said that he knows of Tkachuk's rep in the post game comments, and said he was trying to get under Tkachuk's skin. So what do 2 guys who like to walk that line do? Do whatever they can to get under each other's skin. So while I don't condone Tkachuk hitting Doughty in the head, I'm pretty sure it wasn't intentional to hit him in the head. The fact that Doughty came back fine and played after, should indicate he is perfectly fine and no worse for wear.

I've been on both ends of a play like that, in very similar situations (both trying to get under each other's skin), and when I was on the receiving end, I definitely sold it a bit to try to get a call. And when I was on the giving end, it was always the intention to give a shoulder shrug, to get the guy off my back, and make him think twice about coming at me hard.

In all honesty in my opion, while it wasn't a 'clean' hit, it doesn't demand supplemental discipline. I'm a bit old school with my thoughts on hockey, but someone on that team should have challenged Tkachuk to own up to it. That would have been good enough.
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