Av-merican wrote:
Just heard Marc Methot won't be disciplined for the hit from behind on Henrik Sedin. I just don't get it, it wasn't even a borderline hit, it was a clear hit from behind, and Sedin had his back turned the whole time. This one's a no-brainer. If Sedin had been injured, you can bet there would have been a suspension. Again the NHL punishes results rather than the infraction itself. Ridiculous.
It looked pretty bad to me -- and it appears to have hurt Henrik (not enough to knock him out of the game, but a number of people observed he was having knee issues). I only saw it in slo-mo, though, so I'm not entirely sure how bad it looked in real time. If this is Shanahan thinking "well I have those guys the benefit of the doubt in not suspending Marco Sturm in preseason, so here's one on the other side of the ledger" -- and I'm not saying it is, but if that is indeed part of the reason -- then not much will have actually changed.
(For the record, I think even most of the worst hits from behind -- and knee-on-knees especially -- are fundamentally accidental, if a bit negligent, and I really doubt Methot meant for things to unfold that way. But the rules are the rules).