There’s a phase of hockey followers which have at all times wished to look at the bubble of hockey males discussing hockey issues get completely pierced by even simply the smallest little bit of logic. For that’s the true enemy of most issues which have been hockey ethos. So a hearty thanks to Jennifer Botterill, who throughout an intermission of Sportsnet’s protection final night time turned Jamal Mayers and Sam Cosentino into her private mop.
A bit background: The dialogue centered round back-to-back incidents in back-to-back video games between the Minnesota Wild and the Winnipeg Jets final week. And also you’ll have to stay with me right here, as a result of the set-up will get dizzyingly HOCKEY. Within the first sport in Winnipeg. Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov and the Jets’ Brenden Dillon had a little bit of a back-and-forth. Kaprizov “reverse-hit” Dillon within the nook, i.e., used possession of the puck as an excuse to shoulder into Dillon. In response, Dillon crosschecked Kaprizov twice within the small of the again, knocking Kaprizov out of the sport.
Okay, acquired that? Fairly easy proper? Good, as a result of it’s going to get crazy. Two nights later, within the return sport again in St. Paul, Ryan Hartman exacted the Wild’s revenge through the use of a faceoff as an excuse to whack Cole Perfetti within the face along with his stick.
Simply decide on that for a second. One participant who was not concerned with the primary incident thought it was justice to cheapshot an unsuspecting participant who additionally was not concerned with the primary incident. It could have been simply as apt for Hartman to crawl over the boards and spear some jamoke with a beer within the fifth row. However in keeping with hockey, all of it provides up.
Now that you simply’ve acquired a semblance of a deal with on that, watch Mayers and Cosentino mouth heave their varied defenses of Hartman’s actions earlier than Botterill makes them appear like the overgrown kids they virtually definitely are appearing like:
It’s probably not Mayers’s fault, as a result of he was introduced up in hockey tradition and pondering, and made his dwelling by it. Although Mayers’s competition that the playoffs reverse the sport 5 years in pondering is method off base, contemplating that preventing fully disappears when the gamers solely care about getting the subsequent win. Although Mayers wouldn’t know, as he ended up a wholesome scratch fairly recurrently on the few playoff groups he was part of.
Cosentino tries to be the voice of . . . properly, not cause, as a result of he solely misses that be just a few acres, however argues that it might have been OK if Hartman had gone after one of many Jets higher gamers, seeing as how Dillon labeled the Wild’s finest gamers. Once more, it’s justifiable in hockey to blindly maul one more unsuspecting participant as a result of he occurs to be actually good on the sport so long as your man, who can also be actually good on the sport, has been harmed not directly.
Botterill comes from the world of girls’s hockey, the place she had a really distinguished profession successful three gold medals and a scoring championship within the CWHL, which accommodates none of this silliness. She’s not so deep within the forest that she will’t see none of this added up within the least.
It’s uncommon we get to see the fallacy of “OLD TIMEY HOCKEY” put in such clear aid, and the optics of a girl piercing the stupidity of two guys speaking like morons is price greater than a chuckle. Hopefully, Mayers and Cosentino will dangle just a few extra curveballs for Botterill earlier than the season is over.
Observe Sam on Twitter @Felsgate and on Bluesky @Felsgate.bsky.social
