The NHL Is Becoming Soft
Excuse the hardo blog, but the NHL is going soft and I don’t know how to handle it. And by NHL I mostly mean the fan base. Last night Evgeni Malkin was issued a 5-minute major penalty and a matching penalty for his hit on Washington Capitals forward TJ Oshie. Oshie returned to the game and the Capitals went on to win.
So what is the problem here? It ends there. Malkin was assessed a penalty and story over. There is no possible way people are actually mad at this and calling for a suspension right? Wrong.
There are actually people on this planet who watch the great game of hockey that believe Malkin should be suspended. What a time to be alive. Where did our game go?
Here is what happened and anyone who has ever played a sport in their life knows about a little thing called natural reaction. Something that is a little tough to analyze when you break down hockey via slow mo gifs like 90% of hockey twitter. Malkin sees Oshie approaching him out of the corner of his eye and naturally braces for impact. Does it look like he went for his head in a slow mo gif? Ya probably, but the game isn’t played in slow motion. It’s the fastest team sport on two feet in the world. You have milliseconds to make decisions like the one Malkin made. It’s either get tuned up, or throw your shoulder and brace for impact.
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Did we forget Malkin is Russian too? Russian dudes don’t like to hit. They score goals, thats it. Evgeni Malkin isn’t going out there looking to stir the pot and lay out one of the Caps best players. That just isn’t him or his game.
It doesn’t even seem like Oshie gave a flying fuck either.
Yeah in the heat of the moment you are going to be mad. One of the best players in the league laid you out and he got a penalty for it. But after the game when you have some time to breath and get some oxygen to your brain, you realize any normal human would have done the same exact thing. It is human instinct to brace for contact…I just don’t get why this is so hard for people to comprehend. And trust me, I understand the severity of head injuries so I’m not downplaying them at all. Oshie passed is concussion protocol.
The league is making the right call on Malkin as well by giving him no supplemental discipline. Which is kind of shocking being that the league seems to give into the social media uproars, but nonetheless, good call by the NHL.
The reason I am writing this blog is because when is this going to stop? Every single night we are discussing if a hit is worth of a suspension and it’s taking away from all the amazing storylines of the season and the game itself. Oshie isn’t hurt, so who gives a fuck? The NHL is more fun than ever to watch right now with all the talent. Lets not ruin it by itching and bitching on social media every night that this guy or that guy should be suspended.
And if you think I’m mad about this just wait until you hear what Whit, Biz and RA have to say on the next episode of Chiclets.