EDMONTON — Evander Kane was at least 6 feet away from Nazem Kadri when he seemingly decided to try to injure him.
Kadri was chasing the puck into the corner, and Kane was on a glide path headed right toward him. About 4 feet away, Kane pulled his stick into cross-check position, his eyes firmly fixed not on the puck but the back of Kadri’s head. When they converged at the goal line, Kane gave Kadri a two-handed shove right between the numbers on the back of his jersey, sending him careening into the boards. Kadri’s left forearm and shoulder made contact first.
Kadri lay on the ice for at least a minute. He did not return to the game and is out for at least this series.
Kane sat in the penalty box for five minutes. He did return to the game.
Evander Kane gets a five-minute major penalty for this hit on Nazem Kadri pic.twitter.com/wycyNWdDbc
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) June 5, 2022
About eight minutes later, Nathan MacKinnon and Leon Draisaitl were jockeying for position and the puck along the boards near the benches. As they converged, MacKinnon slyly positioned his left knee directly behind Draisaitl’s right knee and pushed, an overt — if sneakier than usual — slew-foot. Draisaitl, already battling a suspected ankle injury, went heels over head and landed hard on his left shoulder, heading straight to the dressing room and missing a couple of shifts before returning.
MacKinnon wasn’t penalized.
In Game 2, Gabriel Landeskog delivered a thunderous head shot to Kailer Yamamoto, who didn’t return to the game and missed Game 3.
Landeskog wasn’t penalized.
Look, I love hockey. But I hate this garbage.
Kane, MacKinnon and Landeskog are three supremely gifted hockey players, all with often uncontainable combinations of skill and strength. They’re capable of majestic beauty on the ice, with a brutalist touch. That’s what we want to see: jaw-dropping plays, not jaw-breaking hits. But this is the NHL, and we’re simply not allowed to have…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at "ice hockey" – Google News…