Jack Todd: And the ugly hits in the NHL playoffs just keep on coming

Jacob Trouba should have had a major and a game misconduct Sunday. Instead, he got two minutes and the NHL got yet another black eye.

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Don’t take my word for it. Listen to P.K. Subban, who is rapidly becoming the articulate, fearless charismatic commentator hockey so desperately needs.

After the Rangers Jacob Trouba got two minutes for hammering Florida’s Evan Rodrigues with an elbow to the jaw, P.K. didn’t mess around.

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“The arm is extended,” Subban said. “The elbow is out from the start. Where is this a hockey play? There’s no shoulder involved, don’t tell me he hit him in the neck. It’s a straight elbow to the chin. I’m not going to harp on it too long — it’s a major, for me. That was a missed call.”

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Exactly.

Not surprisingly, there were other media types and no shortage of fans lining up with the usual horse patootie to excuse yet another dirty, dangerous play: “The head was not the principal point of contact.” “It was a hockey play.” “It’s playoff hockey.”

The worst was Kevin Bieksa, who tried to tell us it wasn’t an elbow and anyway, it’s all O because he used to hit that way.

No, Kevin. It was an elbow to the jaw. Cut the bull. Brendan Gallagher got five games for the same thing.

Trouba is not merely a headhunter, he’s a serial headhunter. There was the play against Carolina when Trouba launched himself at a falling Martin Necas. Trouba missed his target, which would have been Necas’s head, but his skate clipped Necas as Trouba crashed into the boards.

Then there was the time Trouba hit Tyler Toffoli squarely in the back, driving him face-first into the glass.

One of the worst came in Game 7 against New Jersey a year ago, when Trouba came off the bench and Timo Meier didn’t see him. Trouba drove his shoulder into Meier’s jaw, wiping him out completely and prompting one analyst to claim, “he went through the centre core of the body.”

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No, he didn’t. He went through the centre core of the head.

In January, Trouba was handed a two-game suspension for elbowing the Golden Knights’ Pavel Dorofeyev, yet the refs essentially gave him a pass on the shot that levelled Rodrigues.

Look, Jacob Trouba is a serial headhunter. He is dangerous. He is as dirty a player as we have seen since Matt Cooke hung up the skates that once slashed Erik Karlsson’s Achilles tendon. And yet the hockey world saw fit to honour Trouba with the Mark Messier Award for “leadership” this year.

Leadership in what, pray tell? CTE?

Trouba is developing the sort of symbiotic relationship with Matt Rempe that Bobby Clarke once had with Dave Schultz. Like Clarke, Trouba does the dirty stuff knowing that Rempe is there to assault anyone who comes after him.

Trouba should have had a major and a game misconduct Sunday. If the referees had done their job, it’s likely the Rangers would not have won the game to take a 2-1 lead in the series against a tough Florida Panthers team.

Instead, Trouba got two minutes and the league got yet another black eye. That Florida’s Dimitry Kulikov also got two minutes for interference for hitting the Rangers’ Alex Wennberg in the head with his shoulder earlier in the series doesn’t matter — two wrong calls don’t make it right.

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Not what the PWHL needs: In almost every way — almost — the PWHL has been a brilliant success in its inaugural season.

The playoffs, unfortunately, have been a mixed bag. Too many extended overtime games. Too little scoring. And an injury (which can’t be helped) to the league’s biggest star, Nathalie Spooner.

But the worst of it came Sunday night in Minnesota when, with a crowd of 13,104 at the Xcel Energy Centre celebrating what appeared to be the championship winning goal in double overtime and Minnesota players going wild on the ice, the league announced that the goal was being reviewed.

Minnesota star Taylor Heise had carried the puck down the left wing and fallen and she cut to the goal. As she slid into the crease, the puck went to Minnesota’s Sophie Jaques, who scored over the shoulder of Boston goalie Aerin Frankel.

Heise did not “crash” into Frankel. She didn’t knock her down. Frankel had a full, unobstructed view of the shot. And yet the curse of goaltender interference would strike again. The goal was waved off and one minute later, Alina Müller scored to send the series back to a deciding Game 5 in Boston.

The NHL makes similar mistakes night after night, but the NHL can get away with it. The PWHL has to get it right and waving off the winning goal was not right.

Heroes: Kaiden Guhle, Juraj Slafkovsky, Sven Andrighetto, Leon Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard, Connor McDavid, Taylor Heise, Félix Leclerc, Olivier Renard, Beatrice Chebet, Camryn Rogers, Gabriel Diallo, Luka Doncic, Tadej Pogacar, Summer McIntosh &&&& last but not least, Jaromir Jagr, retiree.

Zeros: Jacob Trouba, Kevin Bieksa, the NHL Department of Player Safety, Kevin Magnussen, Mark Shapiro, Ross Atkins, George Springer, Bo Bichette, Christian Horner, Garry Galley, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Bud Selig Jr., Claude Brochu, David Samson &&&& last but not least, Jeffrey Loria.

Now and forever.

[email protected]

x.com/jacktodd46

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