Following the game on Saturday night Bolts coach Jon Cooper suggested that while the optics didn’t look good there was some onus on Tobias Enstrom for what happened when Nikita Kucherov delivered a check which resulted in a five minute Winnipeg power play. (If you didn’t see the hit click here).
When asked in the post-game scrum how he (Cooper) saw the hit his comment was “..it looks bad because he is leaking after it. You don’t want to see a kid’s face go into the glass so the optics of the whole thing isn’t good. But if you really look at the situation I think sometimes the onus is on the defenceman to protect himself a little bit. He turned into a forechecker coming at him. He turns the other way nothing happens. But he turned into him and that’s what happens. That’s the call they saw on the ice and you have to live with it.”
After practice today Coach Maurice was informed that there was an intimation by coach Cooper in the post-game scrum that Enstrom was “largely responsible” for the end result. Coach Maurice replied rather drolly “You really shouldn’t bang your face off the dasher after you get run from behind. We’ll talk to him (Enstrom) about it”.
Nothing really too surprising with the response by either coach. Both take a position that supports their player.
Let the Southeast Division rivalry live on!!
