I believe its pretty obviously intent was not there on Mac’s behalf. He went down to him as soon as he hit the boards and looked concerned. Mac’s right leg clearly starts to lose an edge when Reddox cuts in front of him. It throw Mac off balance and he leans on him and they both go down. Its a shame it happened close to the boards because if this play was center ice we wouldnt be having this conversation.

I still think Mac will be suspended. Probably 2-3 games. Dont agree with it, but I wouldnt be surprised or mad if it happened.

…And I can see where Oilers fans are coming from because chances are if this was the other way around we would be calling for a dirty hit/suspension/ fine as well, but thats homer bias.

If Mac gets any suspension at all it will be uncalled for and boil down to punishing the result, not the play. “I didn’t think I even leaned on him that hard, he just went in so quick…” Mac’s response pretty much sums it up.

Unfortunate result but no grounds for suspension.

I hate that I’m a Buffalo fan, because I realize that my opinion seems bias (I also hate that I’m a Buffalo fan for many other obvious reasons). Nevertheless, I don’t think the play warrants any suspension. Both players were going for the puck. At the last moment, and very quickly, Reddox dives in front of Mac to clear the puck. He really did put himself in a terrible position. I’m not blaming him though, he was going balls out to clear the puck. He made a great play to get on it so quickly, it was just unfortunate that Mac was right there on him. Common sense should prevail. Quinn is senile old meat head. I don’t think he has good enough eyesight to identify Mac in a lineup. Pretty quick to throw a dumb statement out like that. There’s a guy who speaks after using his brain………. NOT! Also, and most importantly, I hope Reddox is okay. Go Sabes!

This is absolutely absurd. If you look at the replay, Reddox was turning in an awkward fashion and was practically falling when MacArthur “leaned” on him. He barely touched him. Just because a player gets injured does not make it a major penalty or a suspendable offense. Should not have even been a major in my mind. It was only called boarding because Reddox fell funny and went flying head-first into the boards. Mac barely touched him and he was bound to go into the boards regardless. He leaned on a player that was 4 feet from the boards. Plays like this happen every shift and even worse hits occer all the time. Clearly Mac felt bad about it because he went right to the kid to see if he was alright. If he gets suspended it will be an absolute joke. Maybe I just hate referees and penalties altogether, but I didn’t even think he deserved to go to the box. And if we weren’t so badass at killing penalties it probably would have cost us the game for that ridiculous major call.

…then the Sabres should be showing the Chris Neil hit on Drury three years ago and ask why neither a suspension or even a penalty was given for the hit. This is far less flagrant than the hit Alexander Ovechkin gave on Daniel Briere where he got a match penalty but avoided suspension.

If CMac gets suspended it will not be because of the severity of the hit or the intent to injure…it will be because of the color of his jersey.

Buffalo fans sure are blind.

I don’t know how you can view this in any other way other than Mac trying to hurt the opposing player. Hitting a player from behind directly into the boards is the definition of dirty. I’m all for the 10 game suspension.

Clarke is not that kind of guy. He wouldn’t try to injure someone like that. As he started to make his move, Reddox started to go down. It would’ve been a normal check otherwise. Clarke obviously was worried from the get-go and made sure Reddox was alright. I think the NHL will hand down a two game suspension. Reddox knew Clarke was there and knew he was going to get checked but just lost an edge and couldn’t take the check correctly, in my opinion from watching the game and all the replays.