Am I the only one that doesn’t think this is a cut-and-dry cheap shot by Scott Walker? Watching the Versus telecast (and NESN announcer Andy Brinkley work the NATIONAL game), you’d think that Walker came up from behind Aaron Ward and hit him with brass knuckles while he was talking to a priest. They made it seem like Walker was the unquestionable villain and Aaron Ward was merely an innocent bystander that was nailed by a sucker punch. But was it? Here’s the video:
Of course, it was a vicious punch that Scott Walker delivered on Aaron Ward. We’re still waiting for the word from the doctors, but it looks like he has a broken orbital bone and would be out for the rest of the series (minimum). But when you’re engaging a fight, it’s not like you’re going to hit the guys “kind of hard.” No, you wind up and try to win the fight. So we can’t get mad at Walker for hitting him TOO HARD.
Aaron Ward knows it's coming, but has his hands at his side.
Do you think he was ready for the punch? It certainly looked like the 2 of them were squaring off to a fight. Watching it in real-time, I was 100% sure that they were going to start throwing fists. So is it Walker’s fault that he threw the first punch in a fight that looked like it was going to happen? Was he supposed to wait for Aaron Ward to throw the first punch?
I think it’s ironic that it’s BRUINS fans that are upset about the rough stuff that was at the end of Game 5. The truth of the matter is that Boston has thrived on the rough stuff all season. They’ve had great goaltending and unbelievable scoring balance, but the one single quality that put them in the elite of the NHL this season was when they played with a physical nastiness. All teams want to be a team that’s “hard to play against,” and there were no teams that were harder than the Bruins.
So how can Bruins fans be upset when it was the Hurricanes that were tough to play against? They did what the Bruins SHOULD have been doing in Games 2, 3 and 4! The Canes were beaten in every facet of the game for the first 58 minutes of Game 5—but they didn’t take it lying down. No, they did what the B’s should have been doing when they fell behind in the series—they set the tone for the next game.
What do you think? Do you think that this was dirty cheap shot? Or do you think this was a play that’s part of hockey and Aaron Ward should have defended himself? Of course, this is just an outsider’s opinion. I know I’d be pissed if I was a Bruins fans and I’d probably have no problem at all if I lived in Raleigh. The truth is that it’s somewhere in the middle—but I’m curious to see if I’m in the minority on this one.
Update: Scott Walker was fined $2,500 (US), but was not suspended by Colin Campbell for the altercation.
Matt Reitz
Matt Reitz is an NHL Writer for ProHockeyTalk on NBCSports and the Editor-In-Chief here at ViewFromMySeats.com. When he's not shoving a mic in the face of NHLers or explaining why home teams should wear white, he's usually trying to figure out what song to play next on his iPod. It's a never-ending job.
