Department of Player Safety Fails Again
Saturday night the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens may have slightly reignited a bit of a forgotten rivalry after several players wearing the bleu, blanc et rouges left the game early.
The most notable incident of the night was when forward Credric Pare attempted to get in the skating lane of Patrik Laine, however, once the Finnish skater cut back to the middle of the ice the Toronto Maple Leafs depth forward caught Laine with a dangerous knee on knee collision that left the Canadiens forward crippled on the ice.
Laine needed to be carried off the ice and reports were that he left the arena on crutches with no update at the time of writing to the injury.
Less than two minutes after the incident, Canadiens fan favourite and tough guy Arber Xhekaj jumped Pare from behind and proceeded to pound the Maple Leafs off-season free agent signing which resulted in Xhekaj being removed from the game with 17 minutes in penalties including a game misconduct.
From a Leafs fans perspective, many are arguing the knee on knee was not intentional and Xhekaj jumped an unexpecting and defenseless player. From the Canadiens fans perspective, Pare took out what could be Montreal's top goal scorer with a dangerous hit and he should have then answered the call when Xhekaj came at Pare.
Both Were Wrong and Should Have Been Punished
The thing is, both sides are correct. Watching the video of the knee on knee incident, I honestly think that there is zero intent for Pare to throw out his knee. The incident looks as though the shiftiness of Laine caused Pare to get back on his heals resulting in him lunging after the Canadiens forward. However, a player needs to be in control of their body and can't use the excuse "I did not mean to". What was surprising was that Pare not only remained in the game, but the hit went unpenalized.
When it comes to Xhekaj and his complete beating of Pare, there are a couple things to look at. The Maple Leafs forward knocked out one of the Canadiens best players and he went unpunished by the referees. The retribution is understandable and most players, although unintentional would understand the situation and drop the gloves, unfortunately, Pare basically turtles so Xhekaj pounds down on the un-defending forward.
Players need to know that no matter what :knee on knee hits, or any targeting the lower half of the body with your legs is unacceptable. These plays needs to be removed from the league and teach players to pull in their legs or bail on hits. George Parros could have made a statement to the league by coming down hard on Pare, but did not give him anything.
While the Maple Leafs did not get any punishment, Parros did hand down a fine to Xhekaj but no suspension. While there was no injury on the incident, the intent to injure Pare was there from the Canadiens enforcer he took on an unwillingly combatant. Some are comparing the incident to the Todd Bertuzzi incident and while that is the extreme, it is along the same lines where a player has targeted a player because of a prior incident, just go talk to Jason Spezza about his only suspension.
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One incident sees a player unintentional, but seriously injure a player, while the other incident see a player attempt to seriously injure a player but was unsuccessful. Both plays need to be removed from the game and Parros could have made a decision that would put the league on notice, but failed at his job.