Last night in Boston, two of the Eastern conference's elite went head to head, in what was as usual a feisty affair between the Pens and B's.
The game, unfortunately, was marred by a few nasty moments. Moments the majority of hockey fans felt sick watching. I'm talking about James Neal putting his knee into the head of Brad Marchand, and the Shawn Thornton "assault" on Brooks Orpik.
Let's set the scene. First we have what I believe was the incident that got Thornton's back up. At the twelve second mark of the 1st period Orpik lays a clean hit on Loui Eriksson, clean in the sense it was a shoulder to the chest. The only questionable part of the hit is, was Eriksson able to make a play on the puck before he was hit? It looks like he didn't, and judging on the speed and direction of the puck it could be called as interference on Orpik as at no point does Eriksson control the puck. The last player in possession prior to the hit was Patrice Bergeron. Now, Eriksson missed a lot of time this season with a concussion. On this hit he ended up hitting the ice with his head, struggled to get to the bench, and has another concussion (according to several reports). So, about five minutes later when Thornton, the Bruins enforcer, is on the ice at the same time as Orpik, he decides that Orpik should be held accountable and should not get away. He tries to engage in a fight and Orpik flat out refuses. Leading to a 2-minute roughing penalty on Thornton.
Next we move to later on, still in the 1st period, around five minutes after the roughing penalty, Thornton is coming off the bench for a line change when Pittsburgh winger James Neal skates through a prone Brad Marchand. Kneeing him in the head and shakes him up. He then proceeds to get to the bench to escape any Bruin retribution. The play is whistled for a penalty on Neal. Thornton, who didn't see the play, turns around and sees a teammate stricken. He then sees Orpik and another opportunity to make him pay for what he did to Eriksson. He slewfoots Orpik, who is already engaged with Gregory Campbell, then throws a couple punches in Orpik's face. Soft punches, but enough to knock Orpik out for a couple of seconds.
This is the video on NHL.com. It focuses more on the Thornton/Orpik incident but you see Neal knee Marchand at the start.
One common opinion I've seen brandished around about Thornton is that what he did was predetermined. Now, hold on a second. Isn't what Neal did worse than Thornton? The Bruins pay Thornton and expect the enforcer aspect of his game when it is needed. Neal's knee on Marchand was completely unprovoked, aside from the usual chirping that goes on in a hockey game. He skates in a straight line fom the "X" of the Xfinity sponsor board, makes no attempt to avoid contact, and runs away like a pussy.
I'm not condoning what Thornton did. It's a common part of hockey. Team mate gets hit. The enforcer wants to punish the hitter. In my opinion, Orpik was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The first incident with the roughing penalty should've been the end of it. The worst part about what Neal did is that he makes his getaway rather quickly. Well, I would too considering Zdeno Chara was on the ice behind Neal and most likely saw the whole thing.
Eriksson picked up a concussion. Marchand's status isn't known yet. Orpik was released from hospital and flew home on the Penguins team plane.
Thornton now has an in person with the NHL Department of Player Safety. Neal will just have a phone hearing.
The way I see it both incidents are as bad as each other. The only difference is the appearance of the stretcher. The fabled stretcher, making hockey injuries look worse than they are since the dawn of time.
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