bleedgreen
Registered User
I’m not saying all elbows to the head shouldn’t be considered egregious, that’s a deeper conversation. I’m saying there’s a minor for elbowing. Therefore elbowing is a minor unless there’s something special about it. I’m not saying it’s cool to jump up and elbow someone in the head, it should be punished. Just from what I’ve seen over my lifetime and including that it’s changed over the years I’m not seeing anything here for more. Maybe a fine?
They won’t see intent to elbow him in the head. I don’t really either, though that’s the result. Jumping then extending the elbows through usually implies more intent. This is more on the edge than most because he jumped, but because he kept his arms down the extension was really minimal. There was a little push out and that’s where the contact was for sure. I think he meant to hit him strong and high, but then restrained himself and kept his arms low. Because the result was a check to the head resulting in an injury I actually agree there should’ve been more, but by how they call the games I don’t think they will.
It’s hard to automatically give more off an injury though, because there are a lot of purely accidental hits that lead to injury. There’s also the strong chance of gamesmanship. They didn’t need to rush back Barkov in this game, and every player is playing things up at least a little on everything. It’s hard to be a ref and call something because it looks like someone may be actually hurt.
