Too often big hits around the NHL fall into a controversial category where the magnitude of the hit is diminished due to a debate over the legality of the play. Sometimes – not often enough – a hit comes around where even fans of the opposing team have to applaud.
Josh Manson of the Anaheim Ducks delivered one of the biggest, cleanest hits you’ll see in the modern NHL during his team’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday night. Maple Leafs forward James van Riemsdyk was corralling the puck and preparing to turn it up ice when he broke one of the biggest rules of the game – keep your head up.
What a hit!
Manson does just about everything by the book here. He kept his elbow down and led with his shoulder/body, he didn’t target the head and his main point of contact was on van Riemsdyk’s body. There was a bit of incidental contact with van Riemsdyk’s chin/head, but the blow originated through the body as opposed to originating with the head. Manson’s ability to follow all of the rules while running van Riemsdyk over is pretty remarkable when you consider how quickly everything unfolded.
As expected, the Maple Leafs weren’t thrilled with the hit, but recognizing that it was clean and van Riemsdyk wasn’t injured, they didn’t go out of their way to try and get Manson to drop his gloves and fight. NHL players as a whole still need to work on recognizing what’s a clean hit and what’s not and let the clean hits pass by (regardless of how big they are) without stopping play to jump the opponent for a legal check.
Let this be a lesson to all young hockey players learning the game – keep your head up!
