BOSTON — Jonathan Toews was forced to leave Thursday night’s Bruins-Blackhawks game at TD Garden after crashing headfirst into the end boards as a result of a hit by B’s defensemen Dennis Seidenberg.
The play occurred in the second period, and Seidenberg was given a minor penalty for boarding, which put the Blackhawks on a 5-on-3 power play.
Toews skated to the bench and received a little more ice time before being taken out of the game. The Blackhawks captain has a history of concussions, so it was a little surprising that he wasn’t immediately removed from the lineup.
[tweet https://twitter.com/ChrisKuc/status/543225783184289792 align=”center”]
Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville provided an encouraging update, saying “it looks like (Toews is) going to be alright.”
Seidenberg said there was no malicious intent on the play, and that he was just trying to make a clean, hard hit.
“I pride myself on being a clean player and a hard player to play against, so when I went in on that 1-on-1 battle there, I thought I saw his right shoulder, and at the last second, he might have turned, I don’t know,” Seidenberg said. “I didn’t really see the replay or anything, and obviously I never want to see a guy go into the boards like that.
“I would never want to hurt a guy. That’s the last thing on my mind. I like playing hard and winning my board battles, and that’s about it.”
This kind of hit ignites the debate between how much responsibility is on the player making the hit, and how much of an onus is on the player receiving contact to put himself in a safe position.
“We need to start educating our players to protect themselves better,” Bruins head coach Claude Julien said. “We keep turning our backs; we keep trying to curl away. A player’s job is to finish his check. So a player should know he’s going to be hit, and I think it’s not about tonight, it’s about the whole league. I’m one of those guys that have really put a lot of pressure on people that look at those kind of things and say listen, it’s OK to take away those hits from behind when they’re warranted. But what about the other guy — does he not have a responsibility?
“Certainly don’t like seeing those kinds of things, but this is where it’s important to take care of ourselves. So, I view that 5-on-3 we’re going to close a gap quickly, and Dennis is a strong individual. So, is he supposed to get weak because of that situation? Or he just plays to his strength. Again, I wasn’t happy. I looked at it, and it could be arguable, but from my end of it I think it’s what it is. Our guys need to finish their checks and sure, you’ve got to be careful, but I’m sure he knew that he was coming.”
The NHL Department of Player Safety will review the hit, according to Amalie Benjamin of The Boston Globe and Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune. Not all reviews result in hearings and/or discipline.
Seidenberg has never been suspended in his NHL career.
GIFs via Twitter/@PeteBlackburn
