Note Worthy
History Made
I see it exactly the opposite. I thought that Backes raised his level to pick Nielsen's head when Nielsen was almost completely upright in the play that earned him his suspension. Here, Backes doesn't look to me like he changes his level and looks to me to be simply "playing through" a smaller puck carrier turning on his edges. That means Trocheck's head is already going to be well lower than if he was fully upright on his skates. Maybe there is something I'm missing here, but I don't think this hit even warranted a penalty much less a match penalty. Trocheck made himself vulnerable turning into the middle of the ice with his head down and paid the price with what I thought was a clean hit. With the play against Detroit, I though Backes got what he deserved.
I see what you're saying and I don't think you're wrong. I guess from my perspective I think Backes had to know he was going to hit Trocheck's head. Whereas with Nielsen I don't feel Backes was targeting the head and didn't know he was going to hit it.
Trocheck put himself in a bad position here but we all know the responsibility is on the hitter now in the NHL.