Old Time Hockey: Erik Gudbranson Beats The Brakes Off Of Nick Cousins As Blue Jackets vs Panthers Game Turns Into Full Blown Smackdown
Erik Gudbranson is just a good old fashioned mutant. 6'5", 225, bad son of a bitch who you don't want to cross unless you have a death wish.
Turns out that Nick Cousins has a death wish when he threw this gutless hit on Gudbranson earlier this afternoon.
Nick Cousins has a tendency of playing the game like a little shit head. But this hit is as gutless as they come. There are plenty of times when guys are going into the boards to battle for a loose puck, and one guy ends up getting his shit rocked because he turns at the very last second. This wasn't one of those moments. Cousins has Gudbranson lined up in the numbers the whole way, and still went to bury the guy. The definition of a piece of shit right there. And even worse is the fact that the refs took a look at this hit, and decided to reverse the call from a major penalty to a 2-minute minor. Either these refs are a bunch of braindead morons, or they knew it was probably best for Gudbranson to take care of business himself.
Which he did later in the period when he beat the absolute brakes off of Cousins.
Tough look for Cousins to completely turtle here, but a business decision was made. And that decision was purely based on survival instinct. I've never been attacked by a bear before, but I have to imagine your best bet at that point is to just play dead.
That's just some old time hockey right there. If the refs aren't going to do their job and keep guys in line, the players are going to have to do it themselves. Florida may have won the game, but I'd still give Gudbranson the #1 star of the night.