The NHL’s Public Relations department released a somewhat vague statement on Tuesday regarding their investigation of an incident that occurred in the Bruins and Avalanche game on Monday night.
The statement said that one of their officials was struck in the leg by a stick immediately following a faceoff. The statement also said that after investigating the incident it was determined that the player’s intent was not to strike the official but to initiate contact with the opposing player.
NHL Hockey Operations statement on the incident in last night’s game between the @Avalanche and @NHLBruins. pic.twitter.com/fZvtw6MiZd
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) February 22, 2022
No specific player was named in the statement by the NHL. However, further research revealed that the incident likely focused on the Avalanche’s Nate MacKinnon following a faceoff at center ice.
Trailing 5-1 early in the third period, MacKinnon loses a faceoff, gathers himself and swings his stick that hits the official in the right leg.
— HockeyClips (@hockeyclip) February 21, 2022
It’s always extremely difficult to determine a person’s intent and the same can be said for this incident. We’ll let you make the call on this one.
It’s interesting the league chose not to publicly identify the player at any point during or after the investigation.
By Jon Sorensen
Sorry but that is an intentional slash of an official.
Intentional or not, a player is responsible for his stick. If he had high sticked someone unintentionally, he’d have been penalized. This should be no different.
Plus, the league already gave him a freebie with his cheap hit on Patrick.
Good point!
That was intentional as intentional gets! I’m betting if that was 43 in Red, it would have been seen as such along with a fine and suspension!
Agree with you Sean. The question remains, why?
The biases in this league are just blatant and disgusting:(:(
Roger that!