I always find it amazing that so many people can see the same thing, yet come to completely different conclusions about what they saw. And that's just the way that it's looking when it comes to the hit Chris Neil laid on Chris Drury last Thursday night.
Here's John Buccigross:
I don't understand why a shoulder pad to the head is not equivalent to an elbow to the head. This is a hit that needs to be outlawed in the NHL. Chris Neil had plenty of time and space to make a decision on how to hit Chris Drury. That alone tells you the hit was a late hit. It was superfluous, unsportsmanlike and excessive.[...]
The force of Drury's head hitting the ice was frightening. It could have killed him.
THAT was the essence of hockey in Buffalo on Thursday, and that always will be the essence of hockey no matter how deeply committed Gary Bettman and his administration are to the misguided mission of cleansing the sport of its soul.It's a violent game and always has been. It's a game of physical intimidation and it always has been. Chris Drury should have kept his head up.
Neil did not have to hit Drury in the head to knock him down and he deliberately hurt him. If the officials do not exercise common sense to protect the players, the players will act and act inappropriately in a futile attempt to protect themselves.
With the devastating but clean hit Chris Neil put on Chris Drury last week and the responses it has occasioned from seemingly everybody in Buffalo
