San Jose Mercury News – A painful outcome

San Jose Mercury News – A painful outcome:

The Sharks were also upset that Radulov left his feet to deliver the hit.

Bernier crumpled to the ice and remained face down for a few minutes. A stretcher was wheeled on to the ice, but Joe Thornton and Marcel Goc ended up helping Bernier off the ice. X-rays were taken of his head and neck.

Bernier was unavailable for comment. A Sharks official described Bernier’s condition as “foggy.”

The Sharks pushed hard, unsuccessfully, for the NHL to suspend Hartnell on the Cheechoo hit and are likely to be even more vigorous in seeking sanctions on Radulov, who scored Nashville’s first goal Friday after netting two in the opener.

“I didn’t mean to get him hurt,” Radulov said. “It was a playoff game and I was trying to play physical. I kind of saw him before and he was facing me. Then another guy came in front of me, he moved and I just hit him.”

The Radulov hit is exactly what’s wrong with hockey today (more on that as I can). This one wasn’t even marginal; he didn’t just hit a guy up against the boards, he left his feet and he aimed his elbow.

When Radulov says “I didn’t mean to get him hurt”, I call bullshit. The BEST you can say is that he didn’t give a damn what happened to Bernier.

There’s no place for that kind of hit, or that kind of player, in the NHL.

(for the record, I felt the hit on Cheechoo’s knee wasn’t dirty. Now, aiming the elbow at his face? That’s another story, but in today’s NHL, teeth are just an inconvenience, it seems.)

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