This is the correct take, and what makes me the angriest about the whole thing. Not only that, they didn’t call a thing at the time and let us possess the puck for another 10-15 seconds. Noesen even got a shot on goal, I wonder what would have happened had he scored.
I wish people would stop freeze framing hits to try and have the “Gotcha!” moment of what took place. The game is much too fast to think slowing the replay down really tells the entire story on every hit. Sometimes, it can make it clear as day, but here it distorts what really happened. As you mentioned, Timo had Necas lined up for a legal hit. Necas tried to avoid it at the last second, and that’s what led to the knee being the primary contact point.
If you want to call a minor as a result, fine, I can live with that. A major? When nothing was called at the time of the hit? I cant wrap my head around that at all. And that’s what the majority of the other fans are getting riled up about with a penalty being called after seeing Necas on the ice for a prolonged period of time. I’m not accusing him of faking it, I’m sure he was in pain, but the refs ultimately took the end result of the play and reversed time to call a major that I don’t think was deserved.