Oshie Hit on Miller Not Worthy of a Suspension

Pittsburgh Penguins v Washington Capitals - Game One

First, hat tip to both teams in the 2018 Stanley Cup Final, the Las Vegas Golden Knights and the Washington Capitals have put on a fabulous performance. This series will probably be an instant classic.

By now, both team thoroughly hate each other. Game Five will probably only get better. Last night, with the Capitals leading the Knights 4-2. There was some controversy.

At the 13:39 mark of the third period, Capitals defenseman Michal Kempny scored the Capitals fifth goal to put the final nail in the Knights coffin.

Prior to that goal, Capitals forward T.J. Oshie fed Nicklas Backstrom a beautiful pass inside the Knights blue line. Backstrom passed the puck to Michal Kempy who deposited the puck behind Marc-André Fleury, 5-2 Capitals.

While he was passing the puck to Backstrom, Oshie performed a well-timed reverse check on Colin Miller who was bearing down on him. Miller’s nose was broken during the hit.

Not shocking, the Knights saw things differently. Knights head coach Gerard Galant thought there should have been a penalty on the play.

“They didn’t see a penalty on it,” said Gallant when asked if he was given an explanation by the officials. “I think everybody saw it. It’s a 4-2 hockey game, he gave him a pretty good elbow, broke his nose, what do you do? They said they didn’t see it. No explanation they said they didn’t see a penalty.”

Before we get all bent out of shape, let’s take a deep breath. Miller broke his nose on Oshie’s helmet. Finally, calls by fans for Oshie to be suspended by the NHL are laughable. This hit isn’t worthy of a second look.

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