No Amount Of Overdramatizing The Play That Injured Him is Going to Help TJ Oshie Heal Any Faster4/19/2019
Look, I get it. I really do. As far as American hockey players are concerned, TJ Oshie is a goddamn rockstar. If that wasn't made clear when he singlehandedly ripped Putin's cold, dead heart from its body five years ago than it damn sure was when he was running around the nation's capital binge drinking championship beers through his shirt regardless of time and place as if the social laws of society didn't apply to him this past summer. Therefore, anything that costs us his beloved presence on the ice is almost guaranteed to be treated as it were as tragic as a terrorist attack. With that being said, while the play that did cost us his beloved presence on the ice was dangerous, it wasn't exactly unfitting of an inherently dangerous sport during the time of year when it's at its most fast and physical. Of course, a shove of a crosscheck into the swell of an opposing player's back, be it ten feet from the boards or two feet from the boards, is never not illegal, but it's also not anything close to uncommon. Warren Foegele (who did himself no favors with the following idiotic explanation, by the way) earned his two minutes, but let's not act like there would be any cries for five and/or a suspension if not for a slick skater's edge betraying him at the most inopportune of time.
TJ Oshie, who is no stranger to bruising hockey, wasn't anywhere near as defenseless as some are making him out to be when he was hit, as he's played far too much playoff puck to be unaware that contact is constantly coming (as evidenced below). He was made that defenseless when his skate did what it wouldn't do 99.9% of the time in awkwardly giving out from under him.
I hate to say so insensitively because the postseason is better when TJ Oshie is a part of it, but shit happens. Sometimes it's really just as simple as that when you are talking about a bunch of professional athletes zipping around the rink and pounding each other all over a sheet of ice in desperate hopes of realizing their dream. Warren Foegele certainly could have played the situation in a much smarter way that would have guaranteed everybody's safety, but you could say the same about almost every player, including the one who was left clutching his arm in agony, involved in a puck battle during the playoffs. Simply put, just because the result was injury doesn't mean the intent was. If you want to argue the outcome warranted a major then fine, but save your Tom Wilson comparisons for a circumstance in which there's an actual comparison to be made. After all, it was hardly full-force or an unforgivable predatory play that pushed TJ Oshie in the general direction of the boards before shit did what it has the tendency to do in the unforgiving confines in which insanely competitive contact sports take place and...well...happened. In fact, it was probably one that you could find he, himself harmlessly committing at some prior point in this series if you were at all interested in anything other than being outraged by his unfortunate absence.
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