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Jersey Wing

Abdelkader ejected for "vicious" hit at World Championships

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http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/eye-on-hockey/24569836/video-justin-abdelkader-ejected-for-vicious-hit-at-world-championship?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Video at link

VIDEO: Justin Abdelkader ejected for vicious hit at World Championship
By Chris Peters | Hockey Writer
May 22, 2014 11:15 am ET

The U.S. Men's National Team met the Jaromir Jagr-led Czech Republic in the quarterfinals at the World Championship Thursday in Minsk, Belarus. The Americans had played well despite a significant gap in experience between them and the veteran-laden Czechs. Tied 1-1 after the first period, the game got flipped on its head in the second period.

Team USA's captain Justin Abdelkader, who is a full-time member of the Detroit Red Wings, absolutely leveled Czech forward Vladimir Sobotka, normally of the St. Louis Blues. There was no penalty called immediately on the play, but Sobotka remained down on the ice as play continued. The whistle eventually blew and the referees conferred.

After their conference, Abdelkader got a five-minute major and game misconduct for charging. Here's a look.

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he left his feet

I've always thought leaving one's feet after contact isn't really charging. Pretty nasty hit though. Don't get me wrong, if he laid that on, say, Patrick Kane (if anybody could hit the evasive little d-bag) I'd be cheering...but in an international competition that looks like a little too much.

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For starters, that writer is an idiot. It wasn't late and he didn't leave his feet before contact. Part of the reason the hit was so vicious is Sobotka was still following through on his shot and couldn't protect himself. People need to stop watching gifs and slow motion replays and actually watch the video at regular speed.

I don't know about international standards but by NHL rules the only issue is the strides he took before the hit. That could make it charging. To me it looks like he's hustling back to make a play then veers into the hit, but it gave him a whole lot of momentum and made this hit a nasty one.

As for the rest, he does contact the head but he makes solid contact through the body. That's legal in the NHL because of the solid body contact (I don't know about international rules). He doesn't leave his feet before contact.

If Sobotka gets up, it's likely nothing happens here. Even if it were in the NHL though, because Sobotka doesn't get up it's likely getting a suspension.

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I think people are making it out to be worse than it actually was. Vicious hit, but there didn't seem to be a dirty malicious intent behind it. The Czech player was in the worst possible position and Abdelkader was already committed to the hit. A split second reaction on a hit like that is tough. If the player had braced himself a bit more, I don't think you'd see him pop up in the air like that. In hockey, it's natural to follow through upwards on a hit, so once contact is made, the energy of the player giving the hit is naturally going to escape in an upwards motion. To make matters worse, the player that got hit had a weak center of gravity on his right foot because he was following through with a shot, which made the hit more vicious and caused Abdelkader to essentially bounce right off him without taking much of the impact from the hit.

It's kind of like a car going 80 hitting a car going 20... their energy has to go somewhere.

crash_m.jpg

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He was already suspended one game for knee-on-knee hit and now a reckless hit to the head, why he was given the 'C'

is a bit of a mystery.

Not a mystery at all. The roster is full of rookies, he's one of the only "vets" on the team.

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For starters, that writer is an idiot. It wasn't late and he didn't leave his feet before contact. Part of the reason the hit was so vicious is Sobotka was still following through on his shot and couldn't protect himself. People need to stop watching gifs and slow motion replays and actually watch the video at regular speed.

I don't know about international standards but by NHL rules the only issue is the strides he took before the hit. That could make it charging. To me it looks like he's hustling back to make a play then veers into the hit, but it gave him a whole lot of momentum and made this hit a nasty one.

As for the rest, he does contact the head but he makes solid contact through the body. That's legal in the NHL because of the solid body contact (I don't know about international rules). He doesn't leave his feet before contact.

If Sobotka gets up, it's likely nothing happens here. Even if it were in the NHL though, because Sobotka doesn't get up it's likely getting a suspension.

Geez what did fans do before when hits like these were very legal and there were no questions.....

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meh looks like he went to hit his upper chest. looks like he was going to hit him head to head with his arms down but sobotka follow thru changed his positioning and his shoulder hit his head. unlucky

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In live action, it looked painful. I thought he'd get a penalty, but was surprised that it was a game until I saw replays (repeatedly).

The worst part for the team was that they lost composure once their leader was gone. CR scored twice on that PP, and it wasn't until after the 2nd intermission that the US looked like they had their heads back out of their straps.

Once Kronner got the A, he scaled back a bit on his hits (having been injured a lot over the years and just plain getting older might have been a factor there too). With Abby wearing the C, he needed to be more careful.

On the other hand, it was up to him to set the bar for the team and lead them, which I think is what he was trying to do.

He's no Claude Lemieux. He's just a guy who made an error in judgment. I hope he doesn't get suspended, but it wouldn't surprise me.

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Pretty bad hit. I never thought his hit on Lydman was bad even though he got suspended, and didn't see video of his earlier knee in the tournament, but hopefully he cleans it up. And please god I hope this s*** doesn't make him hit less, that's all we need is a gritty player playing like Andersson.

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BULL SH!T!!!!!! Those that think that was a dirty hit, grow a pair! That was a perfectly fine hit. Didn't leave his feet, no elbow, went straight at the guy. Not Abby's fault that the dumba$$ dropped HIS HEAD in the slot area. As a defender you are SUPPOSED to level offensive players in the middle of the ice WITH the puck to protect your goalie. This shouldn't have been a penalty, and the Czech player was a classic example of guys not knowing how to protect themselves.

But then again we are talking about Europe and the wussified version of hockey that they play.


LOL....talk about timing...... Prust does worse to Stephan and is still playing in the game.

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