The refs and league actually nailed every aspect of the two hits from Sunday nights game. I’ll take these one by one.
Regarding Francois Beachemin’s hit on Artem Anisimov: It was a clean hit, with shoulder to shoulder being the principal point of contact, albeit with some incidental contact to the head. Arty had the puck, so no interference. As for Nick Foligno, he jumped Beachemin after and deserved his 2 minutes. The problem here is that no one seemed to have much of an issue with how this played out until the Brandon Dubinsky situation later.
On Dubinsky’s hit on Saku Koivu: The hit was late, albeit not by much. But the standard rule for late hits has more to do with when the player commits to the hit than the amount of time. Dubi doesn’t bring his arms in to initiate the hit until after Koivu had released the puck. I think everyone would have been perfectly fine with a 2 minute penalty.
BUT it appears most people seem to think that the NHL saying the hit was body to body with incidental contact to the head means the refs got it wrong. Yet it doesn’t, not even a little. If the refs thought it was a headshot, or an elbow, they would have called it that. They called it a major for interference. A major for interference is for interference that is especially violent. It’s pretty tough to argue with the violence of that hit.
So if we admit the hit was interference, and we admit the hit was violent, then they ended up with the right call. Now, another issue people have with how this played out is that the refs didn’t make the call right away, the linesman did it after they huddled up. However, if we acknowledge the right call was made, how can this be upsetting? The stripes took their time and made the right decision. This is what we want to happen. This is why instant replay exists.
Okay, one final issue is the lack of a penalty called on Cam Fowler considering Foligno got one. Well, there is a pretty big difference there. Foligno jumped a guy who had not committed a penalty and didn’t fight back. Fowler jumped a guy who proceeded to ragdoll him. If Fowler deserved a roughing penalty, then Dubinsky definitely should have received a roughing call as well. So instead of a 5 minute 5v4, it would have been a full 2 minutes of 4v3, followed by a full 3 minutes of 5v4. It’s without Fowler, but 4v3 is the game state with the highest scoring rate. There is a solid chance the Ducks get more than one on it. I can get behind the refs letting both Dubinsky and Fowler off the hook for the roughing to not further punish the Jackets.
With all that said, it was still a terribly officiated game that appeared to have double standards in terms of what constituted a penalty for each team. But in hindsight, with my Jackets-colored glasses removed, I’ve come to terms with just how excellent a job the refs, linesmen, and NHL department of player safety did with these specific two incidents.
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