The Kronwall Call

I have to agree with Gerard here. That call was pure bullshit. Just because a player gets hurt does not make the hit illegal or dirty. My pee-wee coaches always told me if you put your head down, you're going to get hurt, and they were right. Watch the tape - the puck was in his skates, Kronwall hit him with his shoulder, and he didn't leave his feet (his feet did come up, but that was a result of the collision). The hit was textbook. If I was coaching defensemen now, I would have them watch the tape of Kronwall's check.

What really upset me was how the none of the refs had their hands up, and the penalty was called waayy after the play took place (also, nothing happened to the guy who cross checked Kronwall on top of Havlat). That shows me that it was a he got hurt call. I could understand a late charging call just to calm the situation down, but an after the fact 5 minute major and game misconduct is ridiculous. If you're going to play in the NHL and skate with your head down, you're going to get your clock cleaned, its as simple as that. If you don't like it, watch tennis.

PS) I do hope Martin Havlat recovers from his injury. I never like to see a player get hurt.

Terrible Officiating

I was at the game last night, I saw the hit in person. I saw it on SportsCenter when I got home. I saw it 15 times in the last 5 minutes on YouTube. I have seen Nicklas Kronwall knock Martin Havlat's head off many many times, but my opinion of it hasn't changed since I saw it in real time. It is one of the worst calls I have ever seen, in any sporting event, ever.

If the officials had called charging, that's fine. Kronwall did leave his feet a bit. Maybe his elbow came up? Fine, call elbowing. Shit, call roughing if you want, but don't insult the intelligence of everybody watching the game by calling interference when the puck was right between Havlat's skates. The ref might as well have gotten on the PA and said "Marty Havlat is out cold and we feel bad for him...5 minute major!" If that hit had occurred in Detroit, rather than in front of 22,000 whining Blackhawk fans, there is no way that Kronwall gets 5 minutes. The NHL should be embarrassed.

I never want to see anybody get hurt, and I hope that Havlat makes a full recovery, but you can't call penalties based on the aftermath. It was a clean hit, regardless of whether Havlat had gets up and skates away, or if he's carried off the ice on a backboard. A clean hit is a clean hit. You can't reward a team because one of their players doesn't have the sense to keep his head up. If you skate around looking down at the puck, somebody is going to knock you out, that's hockey. On the flip side, you shouldn't penalize a team beacuse one of their opponents got hurt. This isn't Little League, it's the National fucking Hockey League. Grow some balls refs, and call the game fairly.