This is absurd to me, he followed through with his arm and Chatfield didn't see the hit coming. Chatfield didn't move his head into Pitlick's path.

Smh.

21 comments

  4. I actually agree with this.

    Yeah what happened to Chatfield sucks, but the hit was obviously not intentionally to the head and most of the initial contact was to the body as well.

  5. I think I agree on this one. It was a dangerous hit, but didn’t look malicious. I really don’t feel like I saw a chicken wing or elbow swing. The penalty was correct and I guess I don’t know if he’s a repeat offender, but ejection felt like enough.

  6. I am not surprised. I don’t think the hit was particularly targeted to the head but there was contact. Pitlick sat most of the game – or at least as much as Chatfield sat- and got the major.

    It sucks the hit happened the way it did but if the roles were reversed, I’d be upset if Chatty got supplemental.

    I was surprised it was called a match penalty. The way this has played out I think the hit was well officiated.

  7. I think the hit looked more of a “speed of the game” hit that went wrong. I think the penalty was justified in that Pitlick could have and should have done more to avoid the head. But I don’t know that I think he targeted Chatfield’s head. I think it was more negligence than intention.

  8. I’m actually getting tired of saying it, but the head contact was unavoidable because Pitlick did a shitty job at executing what should’ve been a clean, open ice hit.

    That’s exactly one of the two reasons why there are hearings. One, is this guy a dirty fucking rat trying to hurt people? No, okay, is he so incompetent that his actions might eventually hurt someone? Well, yeah, yeah he fucking is.

    Bro has been an AHL mainstay since he joined the show. 7 teams in like 10 years, he’s not good. And now DOPS is like, oh well.

  10. Take your emotions out of it. He wasn’t pulling a Trouba and going straight for the head. He unfortunately did make contact with Chatty’s chin, probably could have done more to avoid said contact, got the penalty for it and we won. Let’s just hope Jalen can come back soon. It’s a fast paced game and things happen sometimes, even if it seems like it’s always us that things happen to.

  11. The hit to the head was avoidable. If Pitlick just hit him shoulder to shoulder it would have been fine but he took a wider angle to hit the center on a vulnerable player. Yes Chatty should have kept his head up but Pitlick again could have been avoidable with he just took the narrower angle and hit him shoulder to shoulder.

  12. And if he hit Stankoven, then I guess head contact would be unavoidable as well because if he wasn’t 5’8″ then his head wouldn’t have been so low?

    The player going in for a hit has to take the target into account when they go in for the hit. You wouldn’t hit Stankoven in his head and then claim “well he’s shorter than me!” So why would it matter if Chatfield’s head is down? The idea that a player’s “head is down” as a defense makes sense if a clean hit results in injury.

    For example, the huge hit against Svechnikov in our last preseason game against NSH was clean. Svechnikov not looking up made the fallout of that hit far worse, and if he had gotten injured then tough luck.

    In this case, Chatfield’s head being down and him hunched forward made himself a smaller target. Pitlick needed to bend his knees and get lower so he could still hit Chatfield center mass and avoid his head. That’s how it was avoidable. Yes, Pitlick had a responsibility to do so. Chatfield didn’t suddenly shift his posture during the windup to the hit. To say that the head contact was unavoidable in this situation, I would have needed to see Chatfield lower his head just before contact, placing his head into a position for where it would become the main point of contact and leaving Pitlick no time to adapt his approach/form prior to contact: that’s unavoidable.

  13. Did anyone else get the impression that he let Staal put a little beating on him without resisting too much because he knew he should have been more careful?

  14. Fair enough. I don’t think Pitlick was trying for a headshot, I think it was just a reckless play that went wrong. It really doesn’t help that Chatfield made contact with someone’s knee on the way down.

    The match penalty was justified given Pitlick did not have full control over his hit, but any further action would be overly harsh, especially since Pitlick isn’t a “repeat offender” in the eyes of DoPS.

    I hope Chatty is okay and/or gets better soon and I hope Pitlick learned his lesson about how he approaches hits. It’s fine margins and sometimes even a good hit results in an injury, but the best way to avoid that while still keeping hits a part of the game is to ensure that they’re made correctly.

  15. It deserves a hearing. Even if it’s not intentional and even if it was due to the speed of the game (it’s not, watch how far he comes to make the hit), but even so it still deserves a hearing as a reminder of like okay we are going to at least acknowledge it was dangerous and doesn’t need to happen again but we aren’t going to be harsh with punishment but a hearing is at least a way to reiterate a reminder that these plays are avoidable and not something the league wants to allow. Continued infractions could then result in a fine after the initial warning from a hearing is given. Doesn’t seem to be a hard concept but the NHL is very inconsistent with how they operate in these situations and seems totally inept on a regular basis when it comes to handling these types of plays

  17. Captain gave him an on-the-ice hearing. Found him guilty and gave him his sentence – 1 bloody nose. 

  19. I guarantee if roles were reversed here you’d be saying it was an unavoidable and unfortunate outcome, and that Chatfield shouldn’t be suspended

  21. He’d better hope that he’s back in the AHL when they play again. Otherwise, Chatty’s going to bring some Detroit WWE action that way like he did last time a guy went cheap at him.

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