Seems like Miller has no intention to play the puck there.
Just looking for a hit really. Watch his head. On Rooney the whole time.
This is wrong. Miller touched the puck toward the boards and his path continued toward the puck. Rooney and he were on a collision course and Rooney, unfortunately, was not ready for the hit.
It was a loose puck and each one was going after it, Rooney was off-balanced which caused most of the problems. However, JT falling on top of him made it worse. Kevin was in awful shape, so I wish him the best.
I agree. An argument can be made that Rooney crossed between Miller and the puck. If Rooney gets the better of the collision, no body says a word because it was a normal hockey hit.
Miller plays the puck and is about to be engaged one way or another by Rooney. Whether that’s via hit or stick check is impossible to know in the moment. You can easily make the argument that Miller is simply trying to outmuscle the guy he expects to get hit by. It’s not as if he goes out of his way. He’s played the puck and he is being engaged by an opposing player.
I don’t really see this as falling within the spirit of the rule of “interference”. Rooney should ultimately be prepared for contact in that situation and he surprisingly was not.
And yes, the chanting is “unclassy” but that’s an unrelated matter.
- a Bruins fan who would be happy to never see the Canucks win another game
If anything, it was interference by Rooney since Miller was chasing the puck toward the boards. To be clear, I don't think it was interference by either player (Miller was eligible to be hit). But to me this is just a weird hockey collision where Rooney skated into Miller's path and Miller was braced to lay the stronger hit.
Always unfortunate to see a guy seriously injured. Ugly result. But not all bad results are penalties or caused by dirty plays.