And, to say it just once more, not ONLY did this play go unpunished ON the ice, the league actually looked at it AFTER the fact, in the gory detail of slow-mo, and yet
still didn't see it as worthy of any form of discipline.
You can only conclude from that, that those within the league who reviewed this play simply did not feel it "crossed any lines," so as to require discipline.
Crosby was braced/ready for that shot, as Ogre said. He kept his feet, and was also fortunately uninjured. What's frustrating is that had he gone straight down, face first, like a ton of bricks, and sustained an injury, that very same play
would have been disciplined. And that's the backward nature of the league -- as long as a play does not result in injury, it's legal, most times. What kind of stupidity is it, to say that unless you cause bodily injury to a player, any action you take is A-OK. I guess the league doesn't discern the difference between preventative, and punitive; I don't believe the league will garner any more respect for itself from amongst the barely-fans and non-fans, until it absolutely exorcises this crap from the game, and allows the stars to shine as stars...
One more thing...
It makes me absolutely furious that the league permits the game to be played this way (where stars are incessantly slashed/hooked/cross-checked/held/impeded/clutched/grabbed, and any other manner of idiocy), and yet, when these geniuses witness the (inevitable) cratering in scoring statistics, and thus convene to "figure out how to solve the problem," that instead of the obvious, simple solution (i.e. instruct the referees to ENFORCE THE RULEBOOK), they somehow -- in all their collective wisdom -- conclude things like "
perhaps we need to make the nets bigger..."
Are you KIDDING me??? Utterly incompetent morons, they must be...