I've met Kyle on a number of occasions and hes a big kid. The hit in my opinion was borderline clean. I have played hockey for 5 years and know that if you come in over the blue line with your head down and the puck you are all done. Zednik should have known better than to be skating with his head down.
Kyle as i said is a big kid, taller than zednik. Kyle was standing up right and zedniks head was down, of course kyles shoulder and upper arm which is what from what i saw, hit zednik is going to be head height.
The fact that aplayer got hurt from a check does not automatically mean someone should get a suspension. it should come down to if there was definate intent to injure. In my opinion there was not intent to injure, Kyles not a dirty player but yes hes a hard hitter.
As for him having a satisfied look on his face... hell yea when i hit someone a ton i looked satisfied too. He wasnt satisfied that the guy was hurt he was stocked about the hit. It was a solid clean hit! Too many of you guys just see someone got hurt and just all over the kid saying he musta been out for blood.
Hes gonna get a game suspension or maybe two if anything and thats just sot he league can save face and possible so boston can get out of this series winning and without retaliation against kyle.
Its a lesson to keep your head up when playing the game of hockey. Thats all... hopefully zednik finds all his teeth at some point
Also with him having his head down and making forward progress Kyle COULD have hit him/hurt him a ton more if he was out for blood. As far as kyle having his arm extended... thats so the guy cant get around him, as a defensemen you are the last line of defense before the goaltender, if he lets zednik duck the check hes out of position and zedniks prolly gonna have the hattrick.
Watch the reply kyles arm is extended he hits him with his shoulder/tricept (upper area of elbow pad / lower area of shoulder pads) = broken jaw and nose Zedniks head hits the ice, teeth/molars clank together = severe concusion. You dont see Kyle wind up and swing his elbow into the guys face, if that were the case there would have been a ton more rearranging of zedniks face that would have occurred.
Just my .02
Anyhow im sure we can all agree saturdays game will be interesting. They called like a 6'2" 280 punder to replace zednik and im sure its not for his scoring prowess.
-Lou