If you have been keeping up, you'd know that there were three match penalties called last night for hits to the head. The first was Zack Kassian's open ice hit on Petr Senkerik (CZE) that required he be taken off the ice on a stretcher.
The second was Peter Hrasko's (SVK) hit on Jerry D'Amigo along the boards that temporarily knocked him out, but he was able to leave the ice on his own and later returned to the game. (I wasn't able to find a video of this hit.) The third was by far the most dangerous of all as Marek Marincin elbowed Jason Zucker in the head.
My immediate reactions were that all three deserved five and a game disqualification. While Kassian's hit was high, I don't believe there was any intent to injure. His elbows and arms were down and he laid into him with his shoulder. He didn't charge and didn't leave his feet. Senkerik was looking elsewhere and didn't see him coming until the last second.The IIHF suspended him for an additional game and won't be available for Canada until the medal round.
Hrasko's hit on D'Amigo was intentional, high and lead a bit with his elbow. D'Amigo was lucky he was able to return to the game. Hrasko was given an extra two games and won't be available for Slovakia against Switzerland and Finland and their first game of either the relegation or medal round - whenever they end up in. In this instance a three game suspension might be a bit harsh, but not by much. I would have given him two total.
Marincin's hit was absolutely awful. Everything that could be wrong with a hit was wrong with his against Zucker. It was late, he left his feet, lead with his elbow high and clocked him clean in the face. He was assessed a total of four games which is essentially the entire tournament, but I would have just gone ahead and made it the entire tournament and put him on a plane. There should be zero tolerance for hits like that. ZERO.
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Another big topic in this year's tournament are the injuries to Team USA who lost Brock Nelson and Jeremy Morin in their first game against Finland. The powers that be at USA Hockey have been extremely tight lipped about the extent of their injuries and in a short tournament like this I don't blame them. That said I did see both of them walking around before the game against Slovakia and neither of them were in a sling or anything of that nature so take that for whatever it's worth to you.
While those are two heavy blows and force the Americans to play with a short bench and rearrange their lines a bit, losing Zucker has a bigger impact as he is one of their go to guys when it comes to jump starting their offense and is magnified even more with Nelson and Morin already out of the line up for an undisclosed amount of time.
Two things are for sure though...
1) USA is not the only team battling injuries. It might not be to the magnitude in regards to the number or severity, but Sweden is without one of their best players and Canada has two players that are questionable to start tonight and with pride for your country on the line, you can guarantee there are several players who are playing through injuries.
2) These struggles will make the Americans stronger. I loved seeing Kyle Palmieri go after one of the Slovaks after they got in his teammate's face after the whistle last night. You can just see this team coming together and playing for each other right before your eyes. People made a big deal prior to the tournament saying they were in a weaker group and wouldn't have a tough path to the medal round, but a) they earned that "weaker" path by winning gold last year and b) these injuries have become the adversity that will define this team.
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Finally, can everyone just get off Emerson Etem's case? Should he have said Buffalo was a ghost town on his twitter? No, but I am absolutely appalled at some of the replies people are sending him and booing him every time he touches the puck is embarrassing. Like I said on my twitter feed last night...if you're from Buffalo, show that you have more class than that and that Buffalo is the nice place that you claim it to be in your defense of his statement and cheer for a guy that is representing your country!!! If you're from Canada, you don't like Buffalo anyway, so why are you booing?!
I vote we all move on and respect the guy for manning up, apologizing and topping it off with a goal last night.
Talk soon!
Julie
Follow @JulieRobenhymer on twitter for live updates from Buffalo.
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