In last night’s 4-1 Jets win over the Panthers during the 1st period Nikolaj Ehlers knocked Seth Griffith out of the game with this hit. You can watch the play here:
What do you think? Was it a dirty hit? Should he have been suspended? We know how Florida Panthers interim head coach Tom Rowe would answer those questions as he didn’t mince words following the game in his post-game interview.
“It was a dirty hit by Ehlers, he deliberately did it and I don’t care what anybody says, we watched it on video and it was a dirty hit”. He also added “If a kid’s going to play like that in the league it’s going to be a long, long season for him” (You can watch his chat with the media here). You can understand the anger the coach is feeling knowing his player will be out of the lineup with a concussion. At the same time I’m not sure how much Winnipeg Jets hockey Rowe has watched as Nikolaj Ehlers is hardly known as dirty player.
Regardless of his feelings about the situation it would appear the NHL didn’t feel that the hit merited any supplemental discipline as according to John Shannon of Sportsnet “So Supplemental Discipline from last night’s games… Nothing for Ehlers”.
