HF Habs: Out of Town Thread: 2024-2025 season
- Thread starter MarkovsKnee
- Start date
- Jan 18, 2022
- 8,126
- 12,476
To preface: I hate dirty hits and think they ruin the game.
Players are told to forecheck and punish defenders. Reaves took speed and went to blow up the defender. Nurse was completely unaware of the SCUD missile coming his way.
Out of respect for the game and its players: Reaves should've eased up. There is not much more upside in pulverising a d-man (to the point of injury) versus blowing him up and making him hurt. The tangible difference is the targeted player might be pulled out of the game due to injury... but then so could you (the hitter), and so could other players on your team who get targeted in kind. That's why it's disrespectful. You're trying not to hurt the player but to make the player get hurt... that's beyond the bounds of a sport.
Reaves should've let up a bit when he knew he had Nurse. A split-second decision would've changed a devastating "dirty" hit into highlight reel hit anyone could be proud to have as their own.
With that said, is it a filthy hit that aimed for the head? No. It wasn't a drive-by, a slewfoot, a raised shoulder, a flying elbow, etc. Reaves drove into Nurse with maximum force while Nurse was bent over, in the danger zone by the boards, and completely unaware of his impending doom. Terrible lack of awareness from Nurse and a terrible decision to hurt another player from Reaves.
