The Only Thing Better Than the Torey Krug Hit is Listening to Others Whine it Should've Been a Penalty
If your first reaction to watching a helmetless Torey Krug race 180 feet up ice to level Robert Thomas was to appreciate a moment that makes playoff hockey uniquely great, you’re not alone. Obviously everyone in New England would agree with you. And you’d think that any neutral observer without a dog in the fight would celebrate an electric moment that brought back Olde Time Hockey:
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And just naturally assume that the feeling is unanimous. Especially among hockey writers, who sit through hundreds of games every year in the endless regular season that mean practically nothing in the big scheme of things. You’d think those guys in particular would love a moment like the one Krug gave us. But you’d be wrong:
Sorry to disappoint you. But the toner-stained wretches at The Athletic beg to differ with you. While you’re celebrating a tough, physical play that absolutely established dominance over an opponent at the start of a series, the hockey intelligensia is busy eyerolling and clucking their tongues at the vicious, cheapshottiness of a guy hitting another guy without ever leaving his feet or launching at him. Because that is apparently something that has to be eliminated from their sacred game.
I mean, get a load of that first Tweet. Krug was “tangled up with David Perron.” That has to be the best euphemism for “Perron pinned him to the ice and finally ripped his skull bucket off on his third attempt before getting up and scrambling to the bench” you could ever write. That’s the kind of spin writing that will get you a job writing for a Third World dictator to describe his war crimes. “The evil villagers literally raced the length of the field and leveled our bombs after being tangled up with our heroic mechanized infantry units.”
But it’s not like we’re not used to that around here. Clearly the hockey media world is suffering from the same Boston Championship Fatigue that’s plaguing every other pro sport. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. One man’s Charging penalty non-call is another man’s one-setting, series-defining play, worthy of being immortalized into a statue. Maybe one facing the Orr one.
So keep it up. Let the hate flow through you. I wouldn’t have it any other way.