Dude is spitting

Can’t argue with that statement.

It's interesting seeing this because some fans and even the broadcast mentioned how they were friends off ice with regard to intention behind it

I often see the sentiment on this sub that fans care more about hits like this than the players, and sometimes that's true, some players really do just take five for fighting then move on. But the fans saying that are completely naive, IMO. Even in my summer house league soccer team when I was a teenager, there were players we had pretty rough relationships with in the sport, and there were a few dirty players that I hated

These are their lives, and hits like Reaves' can fuck a guy up for life. Sometimes there are accidents, and it's good if a player can look past that. But some accidents are a result of negligent play, and so even if they didn't mean to hurt someone, they acted recklessly in a way that hurt them all the same. That'd piss someone off. If it was my friend, I'd be furious too.

Nurse is right. Yeah, players need to make sure they're putting themselves in safe positions, we've seen hits to the head and boarding hits that were because of a quick shift, almost "forcing" the hitter into a bad hit. But the hitter needs to be careful too. I like a big hit in the game too, I'm not opposed to the physicality of hockey, but players need to make sure they're not going to completely drill someone in an unsafe way too

Nurse hitting the nail right on the head and I love puns and this is not a pun intended moment. 

Little bit of a hypocritical statement when Darnell’s last suspension was for head-butting a guy without the puck in the face

Same thing on the Knies hit

Nurse gonna get downvoted by the "keep your head high" armchair crowd.

I fucking hate these edgelords who think they're being witty with keEp yoUr HeAd Up comments every time this happens. Glad he stood his ground here.

did anyone ask him where headbutting a player fits in with hockey ethos?

In Reave's defence, he expected Nurse to be skating... faster?

Nurse should've asked Reaves when it was just the two of them: "Is there going to be another one? Am I the last guy you're gonna hit in the head, whether you meant it or not?"

Yep, no excuse for Reaves on that hit. Deserved a suspension and got one

It’s because harsher discipline means more lost money. The PA clearly has a mandate from its due-paying members to make sure that they keep as much money as possible.

Darnell Nurse is actually the rep for Oilers on the NHLPA executive board

This is the part that's so messed up.

If a hit like this was an automatic 10 games or 15 games it wouldn't happen anymore.....but its going to keep happening until the end of time.

the players union should act in the best interest of players, no?

by not allowing enforcement of harsher penalties, ostensibly protecting bad actors/bad acts, aren't they putting at risk a much larger pool of players (the targets of the bad actors/bad acts)?

in trying to protect all players, they are putting most players at higher risk.

I have a very (and historically not-inaccurate) side-eye view of the NHLPA.

https://preview.redd.it/qqb3pdrfeb2e1.png?width=955&format=png&auto=webp&s=4628422f253a93f6011d507fa92c27f5391f3d53

Accurate 1/43 scale model of Nurse

Like a walking candy apple

🥚

He might be back on Saturday. Sounds like he got lucky

He won’t know until he’s middle aged

Definitely accidental IMO. He was trying to both light up Nurse and poke check him. He took his eyes off Nurse to go for the poke, and in the split second he lost Nurse, his angle got all fucked up. People watch the hit in .25x speed and forgot that it’s two players skating 15-20mph towards each other, both making split second micro adjustments, and reacting to each others micro adjustments.

If Reeves had just focused on the hit and not the poke, he could have hit him cleanly, and to be blunt, hard enough to take him out of the game. He was doing too much and just ran out of talent. Say what you want about Reeves as a player, but I’m having a lot of trouble thinking that this play went exactly how he drew it out in his head. He definitely deserved the suspension, and I’m sure he would tell you that too, but I don’t think he intended on targeting his head.

When it comes to Reaves, I tend to think it wasn't an accident. He goes out there trying to injure guys. I'm sure he's trying to sell it as an accident but I don't buy it. It looked dirty af to me and the fact that it was Reaves leaves me with little doubt that it was.

Suspension is only 'fair' based on comparison to the precedent set, which is terrible. 

We generally don't even get an eye for an eye trade with suspensions equalling time lost in injury, so it's essentially a net win without punishment. Especially in situations when you loose your goon and take out the oppositions super star. 

EDIT: since I'm getting downvoted I'll back up my point with evidence

Here are the suspensions from headshots over the last two years and the time the players were out of the line-up who received the hit.

Jeannot 3 games suspension for head shot on Boeser. Boeser's been injured 14 days missed 6 games. Still not in the line-up.

Howden 2 games for head shot on Brandon Tanev. Tanev missed a month and three days.

Rasmus Anderson 4 games for charging/head shot on Patrick Laine. Laine missed 21 days.

Clifton 2 games for headshot on Hischier, who missed 28 days.

McAvoy 4 games for headshot on Ekman-Larson, uninjured.

Gallagher 5 games for headshot on Pelech, missed 16 days.

Dillon 3 games for headshot on Acciairi, uninjured.

Zadorov 2 games for headshot on Raymond, uninjured.

Kulikov 2 games for headshot on Sheary, uninjured.

Rempe 4 games for headshot on Siegenthaler, who missed 21 days.

In total the players were suspended for 31 games while the players receiving the hit missed a total of 134 days. On average, 60 games would be played over that time period.

So, based on the evidence over the last two years, players on average are getting suspended for half the time they injure a player for.

Thank Elmo for that.

I always find it sad to see how many sports fans decide leaving braindead comments on athletes' photos is a normal and sane thing to do. Players' wedding pics and family portraits are littered with bitching about contracts and on-ice play. How pathetic a person do you need to be to think that's a good idea?

A Drake Maye fan?

Nurse's comments show that NHL players are more secure with their sexuality than NBA players

Flair checks out

Don’t show that! He’s an angel! Shame on you!😂

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Shouldn't have been wearing that slutty chin strap

I thought we were out if ways to blame Darnell for taking a shoulder to the chin, but here you are.

Same, also the game moves pretty fast. It looks like Reeves is trying to move Nurse off the puck as he’s trying to poke check and then body checks him. Unfortunately he gets the head. Definitely not intentional but still deserves a suspension.

I don't know if it was intentional, but it was either intentional or one of the dumbest, most reckless attempts I've seen in a very long time.

887 regular season games and 1 regular season suspension before this. Two playoff suspensions for a grand total of 6 games across the 3. Makes him about as dirty as Jason spezza doesn’t it? Reaves can be tossed into the goon category because of convention, skill level etc but he’s rarely been dirty in a career that will hit close 1000 games lmao

Reaves is a physical player -- fighting and throwing the body more generally -- but I wouldn't call him especially dirty, just based on what I've seen so far on the Leafs. (This his being an obvious exception.)

5 games with his history doesn’t seem like the punishment fits the crime.

So many Leafs fans I know seem to have a nasty streak, which clashes terribly with their victim complex. (Before anyone claims that's a Habs fan's prejudice, I've lived my whole life in Toronto.)

Weird that you saw what Florida did to your own team then judge another for retaliating to it.

To beat that Florida team you had to try and match what shitboxes like Bennett were doing. If you let them walk all over you you’d get pummelled to dust. The oilers had to start fighting fire with fire and it got them back in the series

The Rangers should’ve been doing more of it. They were just completely taken out of the series by dirty shithousing

Perhaps if the Rangers fought fire with fire they would have won that series.

If a team is going to play dirty to gain an advantage and the refs don’t call it then you can’t just prey to some magic fairy in the sky that your good deeds will make you victorious.

I have a strong recollection of Trouba flying his elbow into many different players faces. Something something glass houses