from Mark Lazerus of The Athletic,

There’s nothing normal about hockey’s norms.

This is the only team sport in which full-blown fistfights are not just condoned, they’re also romanticized, woven into the very fabric of the game. It’s a sport in which players routinely play with shattered teeth, broken fingers, bloodied faces. Clean hits are met with vicious retaliation, and empty net slap shots are met with cross-checks to the face. It’s a modern game of incredible skill, speed and athleticism, but much of its charm is found in its throwback viciousness, an inherent meanness that harks back to another era.

So maybe it really wasn’t a big deal when the Colorado Avalanche’s Josh Manson lunged forward and hacked Connor Bedard’s wrist with a two-handed chop of his stick in the third period Thursday night. That’s hockey, right? “It’s a great play,” former Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Brent Sopel, as tough a player as they come, wrote in reply to the video on Twitter. “Big boy hockey.”

Bedard didn’t have the puck. It was miles behind the play. It was a sneak attack from behind when Bedard wasn’t looking. And it was right on one of the most vulnerable parts of a hockey player’s body — no chance that was a coincidence — just below the glove, right on the wrist bone. Regardless of whether it was retaliation or intimidation — nobody in the Blackhawks dressing room seemed to know — there’s no possible purpose to the slash other than an intent to injure. Bedard escaped without injury, but he was doubled over in pain afterward, so you know Manson hit his spot.

This is big-boy hockey? Really? A sucker slash from behind seems more cowardly than macho, no?

Regardless of what side of The Discourse you find yourself on, it is part of the game. Always has been.

“It happens every game,” 17-year NHL veteran Nick Foligno said. “It’s just magnified because it’s (Bedard). Obviously, we don’t want anyone taking liberties on him, but it’s going to happen. It’s going to happen again. Bedsy’s going to have to learn to play through some things. Every player has. Connor McDavid had to learn to play through all the cross-checks and whacks he gets. Sid (Crosby), too. It’s the reality of the game.”

continued ($)

Watch the slash below or at The Athletic.