Some hits are borderline.
Some hits are flat-out dirty.
Daniel Carcillo is a fan of all three, but the elbow he laid into Ruslan Fedotenko while leaving his feet on Thursday night undeniably goes into category No. 3.
See for yourself.
Immediately, bling Flyers fans (that's not all Flyers fans, but more like the ones who have no problem with Randy Jones' hit on Patrice Bergeron) are going to say Fedotenko had his head down, that he was possessing the puck in the offensive end, and that he deserved to get laid out. It's the same argument that Penguins fans made when Matt Cooke blindsided Marc Savard.
They'll quickly point to the fact that neither player was called for a penalty.
To a certain extent, that's entirely inaccurate — at least not in theory. If a player isn't looking and gets hit, it's the players fault, but not when the puck's been off his stick for a full second or two. That was the case in both instances.
Worse than the timing is the elbow. Carcillo had his funny bone cocked and loaded for about a half-hour. At the moment of impact, he leapt in the air and stuck the elbow out, "incidentally" catching Fedotenko square in the face.
It was dirty. It was gross. There's no argument.
Well, unless you're Carcillo.
"I saw him in the middle of the ice and the puck was right there," he said per the New York Post. "He kind of went down when I got to him."
Yes, Fedotenko did duck down when Carcillo got to him … but Carcillo "got to him" with his elbow and nothing else. There was not one other piece of Carcillo's body other than his elbow that made contact with Fedotenko.
Again, there is no argument … unless you're Carcillo.
"My elbows were in," he said. "I know it looks bad, but I didn't try to hit his head or anything. It is what it is."
I'm sure Carcillo will tell you that this one was an accident, too.
Don't buy into the defense that Carcillo stepped up to a fight a few minutes later, either. While he did go toe-to-toe with Brandon Prust, he conveniently took a pass on dropping the gloves against Derek Boogard. (And despite choosing the smaller opponent, Carcillo still got whooped.)
Maybe Carcillo will get fined, maybe he'll get suspended, but at this point, who cares? He's just going to do it again.
Was Daniel Carcillo's hit clean or dirty? Share your thoughts below.
