Sorry about Koivu guys. Not a malicious play - but unfortunate. Here is a quote from Gio in Sunday's Calgary Sun.
“Obviously bad timing by me on the hit. Just a bad play — I didn’t get him, I missed him,” Giordano said of Thursday’s hit on Koivu, explaining that he was trying to squeeze the Wild captain along the boards as he cruised by. “I’m not going after anyone trying to hurt them. I’m just trying to play the one-on-one, and I just felt like I didn’t get there in time and timed the whole play wrong.
“I was surprised that our legs hit like they did,” he added. “I thought originally that I just sort of clipped him and tripped him with my feet. But yeah, you see the different angles and our legs do hit. I was just sliding over. You do that maybe 50 times a game, where you slide over on a guy and you try to close ice. I was trying to close him on the wall, and the result was a bad one and I just hope that he gets back and is playing sooner rather than later.
“You hate to see a guy go down like that.”
- hags11
How was it not malicious? What a bunch of BS, who cares what his excuse is, the proof is in the play. Giordano blatantly extends his leg with the intention of making contact. End of story, they don't hand out 2 game suspensions otherwise.