The Clarke MacArthur hit is the major debate here in Buffalo as well as in Edmonton. Over at Copper and Blue, they are calling for a minimum ten game suspension which makes sense because it was an Edmonton player who was injured. Here, most of our readers believe that MacArthur should not have been given the five minute major but rather two or less. The question is what will the league think about the hit?
For those that haven't seen the video, here it is:
The two coaches have differing opinions on the severity of the hit:
"It's really just a hockey play," Ruff said. "Clarke's leaning on him, trying to get position, and his legs got tangled up. It's a tough call. I understand why they called it because of how [Reddox] went [into the boards], but there's no intent."
Said Quinn: "He knew exactly what he was doing. He puts his elbow right on his head as he's falling. But the league? Who knows?"
Obviously these two coaches are going to have differing opinions. The thing that bothers me with Quinn's statement is that if he watched the tape again, he would notice that MacArthur's elbow was on Reddox's back as compared to his head.
What you should notice when watching the video is that obviously the hit is very awkward. Both players are fighting for the puck and both are starting to go down as they approach the boards and while MacArthur does shove Reddox both players are losing their balance which cause both players heading toward the boards.
There was no intent to the play and that can be shown by the reaction afterwards. MacArthur doesn't get up and skate away but instead attempts to make sure that Reddox is alright. If there was blatent intent on the play, we would not have seen a reaction like that.
The five minute major and game misconduct were warranted though. MacArthur should have attempted to slow up just due to the fact that Reddox had his back to the play. The major and misconduct suggests that the league will look into suspending MacArthur for the hit and with the inconsistency in NHL suspensions we cannot specifically determine how long it is going to be for. Most likely, MacArthur will receive a game and at most two due to the fact that Reddox was injured on the play, MacArthur is not a repeat offender and that there did not appear to be intent on the play.