Cheap shots. There's a whole variety of them. But there are none that bother me more than hitting a guy between his legs, his family jewels if you will. Its probably the worst place you could hit a guy (being a female, I'm not sure how much pain this causes) if you wish/wished to do him any harm. Yet there are those out there who are trying to defend one such cheap shot that happened last night in the 1st Round Matchup in the Stanley Cup Playoffs between the Boston Bruins and the Detroit Red Wings.
For those of you who haven't heard, Milan Lucic of the Boston Bruins brought his stick up between the legs of Detroit's Danny Dekeyser, effectively hitting him in the family jewels. While Detroit went on to win the game 1-0 and take a 1-0 series lead, I'm sure that's of no comfort to the poor guy who was on the receiving end of a cheap shot from arguably one of the cheapest players to put on an NHL jersey.
Yet there are those out there who will defend such antics simply because "it's the playoffs." Are you kidding me? How can anyone, and I do mean anyone, defend the actions of Milan Lucic last night? That stick between the legs was a dirty cheap shot, with the intent to injure. If this guy had the very same thing happen to him, you can sure as hell bet that he would be calling for the other player's head. And so would the majority of fans that support the team he plays for.
Some would say that if such a thing had been done by a member of my favourite team, that I would defend such an action. Well let me tell you this, I wouldn't. And do you want to know why? Its because I was raised to know better. I was taught that hurting another person is wrong. There is only one time that it is okay to hit another person, and that is when it is done in self defense. And at no point during that play last night did Milan Lucic look in any way threatened.
But because its a Boston player, of course it wasn't dirty, right Bruins fans? That's what I've been reading. Just a quick browse of comments on the incident, and I saw comments like "Its the playoffs, the ends justify the means" and "I didn't say it didn't hurt, but its not suspendable". Are you guys even serious right now? In what way, shape or form is it okay to deliver a cheap shot to another human being? Yes that's right, human being.
There are people out there who seems to forget that these guys are human beings- sons, brothers, cousins, uncles, fathers, godfathers, etc, who play the game for a living. Hockey is not who they are, rather the job they get paid to do so they can support their families. They go out there night after night, putting their bodies through things most of us couldn't even dream of doing. All for our entertainment. And yet some of you will say cheap shots, slew foots and the like are okay. I've seen some people justify head shots, and I'm blown away. And not in a good way. Head shots most often lead to concussions. But that's another rant for another time.
For those who think this kind of behaviour is justified, I urge you to stop and think about it. I mean really stop and think about it. I'm not a parent, but I can't help but think "would you allow your son to do this and then say it wasn't dirty?" I would certainly hope not. You'd teach him that what he did was wrong, and then you would give him what punishment you thought fit the offense that he committed.
So why is a hockey player any different in this situation? He's not. He is a human being, the same as you and I, and just as we are taught that we have to learn from what we did wrong and be punished for it, so should he be. Its because he has gotten away with such things because the league has turned a blind eye to it (eye exams, anyone?), that he continues to do so. Let's put a stop to this before he does something even worse. If kids see that he gets away with it, soon you'll see this sort of thing trickle down to younger players. And that's not the image hockey needs.
NHL, I hope you do the right thing here. But if you don't, there's always karma. And I heard she can be pretty nasty.
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