Kronwall levels Havlat
Last night during the Western Conference finals Game 3, Detroit Red Wings defenceman Niklas Kronwall destroyed Chicago Blackhawks forward Martin Havlat along the boards... effectively removing him from the puck, and the remainder of the game. Kronwall was assessed a game misconduct for the hit (which I thought was overkill... actually I thought the hit was clean).
The Blackhawks held on to win Game 3, 4-3 in OT... bringing the series to 2-1 in the Wings favor. Havlat looked pretty shaken up after the hit, but did leave the ice on his own. Whether he returns or not will be a major concern for the Hawks.
Your friend on ice,
Captain Bosh
Comments
Well, obviously I think this call was absolute crap. The hit was clean. Kronwall didn't leave his feet (well, by kronwall standards, anyways), used only his shoulder, only took a step or two into the check, caught havlat with his head down and planted him one.
As for "interference," The puck was RIGHT THERE for Havlat--at most it was 3 inches from his stick. How is Kronwall supposed to know in the heat of the moment?that TECHNICALLY Havlat hasn't touched it? It's easy to look at the slo-mo and say he didn't touch it, but having to make that decision in real-time? Any defenseman in the world would have done the same thing.
The check was clean. End of story. At MOST, if you REALLY want to enforce an interference call, you give kronwall 2min, and even that would have been a debatable call. The five would have been too much, and a game misconduct was gross overkill.
It seems pretty obvious that kronwall was punished because havlat got injured. The announcers even say that no penalty was called until it was clear that havlat was out cold.
Bah, at least nothing came of the penalty.
Posted by: jeff | May 23, 2009 11:19 PM
Usually Havlat explodes when he's hit that hard.
Posted by: cap | May 24, 2009 04:50 PM