Capitals winger Matt Hendricks made his feelings known about Penguins defenseman Zbynek Michalek after practice on Monday. He wasn’t that thrilled.
“You try to put yourself in a good position to take hits and stuff, but at the same time I was a couple feet off the boards and going towards the puck,” Hendricks said. “I don’t think it was a clean hit, but he got an elbowing penalty for it, put us on the power play.”
Michalek’s questionable hit came a few minutes after Washington forward Alex Ovechkin dropped him against the boards, which the NHL deemed worthy of a three-game suspension on Monday. No penalty was called on the play, but the league cited Ovechkin’s history and him pushing the envelope on both charging and head shot rules. Michalek, on the other hand, has no such disciplinary history with the NHL. He not only wasn’t suspended, he didn’t even earn a fine from Brendan Shanahan, the NHL’s senior vice president of player safety.
“I leave those decisions for the big guys in the league office,” Hendricks said a few hours before learning of Michalek’s hearing result. Shanahan’s video reviews – like the one the NHL issues after Ovechkin’s suspensions – have at least helped show players what the league considers dangerous. They might not always agree with the decisions, but at least the process is more open. Most of the time, anyway.
“The explanations have been good in my opinion. I’ve seen them online, on TV,” Hendricks said. “Understanding where [Shanahan’s] view points are coming from, I think it’s been good for us, good for the game. It’s kind of a learning curve right now with the way things are. But I think he’s doing a good job showing us what he doesn’t want to see.”
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