Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Another Dirty Hit?

05/31/2016 at 12:31pm EDT

from Paul Zeise of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

The NHL is not serious about cleaning up dirty hits that put players in jeopardy of concussions and other head injuries. The league can’t be.

We have seen too much evidence in these playoffs that shows the league isn’t yet to the point where it is willing to suspend players who commit these kinds of hits, even if they are accidental.

The latest, of course, is Sharks standout Patrick Marleau’s elbow/shoulder to the head of Bryan Rust in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final Monday night.

The Penguins won, but Rust is now day-to-day with some sort of upper body injury. If you watch the play, there is no way you can tell me that Marleau wasn’t trying to head hunt and punish someone. But the league already announced today that Marleau won’t be facing any supplemental discipline.It would be shocking if it wasn’t so predictable, but there is no way the league is going to suspend one of its stars in the middle of the Stanley Cup final, especially with his team already down 1-0 in the series.

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Missed or want to review the hit, watch it below...

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About Kukla's Korner Hockey

Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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