Good night: Awww, it’s baby’s first debate on hit legality
The Lead
And there it was, the first gigantic hit of the hockey season. Dion Phaneuf on Kyle Okposo.
But given the time of year, this hit has already sparked a good amount of debate (covering several topics) among the Twittering and Facebooking and Messageboarding folks that care far too much about this stuff.
The questions are as follows:
- Was the hit legal?
- Was the hit headhunting?
- Did Phaneuf really need to hit the kid that goddamn hard considering it’s the preseason?
The answers, in order, should be yes, no and probably not.
Let’s first take a look at the legality of the hit itself: Phaneuf did not leave his feet prior to impact, the force of which took both players to the ice. He did not take more than two steps toward Okposo. Okposo had the puck. This is all pretty cut-and-dry stuff.
As for the headhunting, well, I’ll take the same stance I did when Brandon Sutter got his lunch handed to him by Dougie Weight last year. It isn’t headhunting if you drop your head to another player’s shoulder-level, which is what Okposo, harried by a Nigel Dawes backcheck, did as he tried to control the puck.
The third question is the real sticky one here. This was the just second preseason game for both clubs and there’s a long way to go until these games start mattering. This one hadn’t been especially chippy to that point. It’s not like Dion Phaneuf is fighting anyone for a job or trying to impress management. So within the context of this particular game, there was no reason for Phaneuf to demolish Okposo whatsoever. But within the context of the sport, it’s Okposo who’s to blame. He had to have seen two defensemen in front of him, one of whom was Dion Phaneuf, who, fairly or not, has the reputation as the biggest hitter in the league, and also for being — how to put this diplomatically? — a bit of a scofflaw as far as the rules of engagement are concerned.
And while Phaneuf may not have needed to earn a roster spot, it’s pretty clear that he’s well aware of the criticism rightly leveled against him in the offseason. He was terrible last year. And if this is his way of reassuring Flames fans that he is indeed back to, say, 2006 Phaneuf form, then it’s at least partly understandable.
Let’s be honest: this is hockey, which, last I checked, is a contact sport. If this hit had taken place in January, there’d be people upset, sure, but the online outrage would’ve been a bit more tempered and reasonable. It’s unfortunate that Okposo got stretchered off the ice, yes. Absolutely regrettable that it came to that. I saw a couple people talking on Twitter about how one solution to, apparently, solve this problem is to only play teams that are geographically close to you. I’m not sure how that’s meant to help.
I have a better solution though: Keep your head up.
