Quote:
Originally Posted by AustinL_NHL
Wideman ended Don Henderson's career.
The ref Beckman hit ultimately got up and continued the very same game.
Objectively... one of those is way worse than the other, without the added points of Beckman's immediate remorse + staying with the ref till the trainers came vs Wideman smoking the ref that was in his vision for 5+ seconds, continuing to the bench and showing zero remorse.
Beckman's was as unintentional as it gets, and thankfully the ref in question wasn't seriously hurt, unlike Wideman's play
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Henderson also got up and continued the very same game.
Objectively the Beckman hit is worse. He has no excuse, and it would have been a dangerous play regardless of whether it was a ref or not. Being that careless is extremely dangerous, he very easily could have paralyzed that ref for life if he landed differently.
Wideman, as ruled by arbitrators and commented on by doctors and admitted by the NHL, was concussed and not in his right mind, the hit was unintentional, at very least as unintentional as the Beckman hit in the sense that neither player seemed aware of what they were doing, but only one had a traumatic brain injury at the time.
Wideman didn’t show remorse because it’s entirely unlikely he even knew it had happened. Unless you’re the type to downplay the severity of concussions or brush them off as nothing, I’m not sure how you can refuse to acknowledge it.
Either way, hope the ref doesn’t experience any lasting troubles from the hit. But Beckman should have got more.
