Crosby did not play<\/a> in the final two games.<\/p>\nGudas wasn\u2019t penalized on the play and was remorseful in Milan when asked about Crosby\u2019s injury after the game, but substantial online ire \u2014 via social media and YouTube comments \u2014 has been directed at Gudas in the aftermath.<\/p>\n
Asked about the level of outrage he experienced, Gudas said, \u201cI\u2019m not a big social media guy, so I can\u2019t really say I\u2019m paying much attention to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, it\u2019s tough to see,\u201d Gudas said of Crosby\u2019s injury.\u00a0\u201cYou never want to see anybody get hurt. I understand their anger. I\u2019m not out there to get anybody hurt. But it\u2019s a tough, hard game out there and it\u2019s been just unfortunate. Hopefully he can recover well. I don\u2019t really know what else to say. It was a freak accident. You\u2019re just trying to play as hard as possible and then see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ducks forward Ryan Strome watched and rooted for Canada, his native country, throughout the Olympics. Like fans across the nation, Strome was saddened to see Crosby unable to continue in the tournament. He also thought back to 2014, when John Tavares, then his teammate with the New York Islanders, tore an MCL while being hit in an Olympic game and missed the remainder of the NHL season.<\/p>\n
The risk of injury is why NHL owners have long been leery of including their players in a best-on-best competition during the season. But Strome said he felt there was no ill intent.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not trying to hurt anybody,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen the other side of it. That\u2019s the one downfall of the Olympics, and unfortunately it happened to (Crosby) and Canada and the guy that was (the captain) on our team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crosby\u2019s status going forward with the Pittsburgh Penguins has yet to be announced. The Penguins resume play on Thursday and are in second place in the Metropolitan Division, but with only a five-point cushion for a playoff spot.<\/p>\n
The reputations of Crosby and Gudas also might factor into how the play was viewed. Crosby is considered a great ambassador for the sport, a player who has won three Stanley Cup championships with the Pittsburgh Penguins to go with two Olympic gold medals. Gudas has built a 14-year, 872-game NHL career on hard-nosed defense and being a player who is beloved as a teammate but also reviled because of hits and other actions that crossed the line and resulted in multiple suspensions.<\/p>\n
Gudas\u2019s last suspension came in 2019 while with the Philadelphia Flyers, and Strome said the anger directed at the defenseman has gone over the top in this instance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s unnecessary,\u201d Strome said. \u201cI think in the last like maybe couple of days, we\u2019ve seen more than ever, like how toxic it is online. \u2026 I think everybody in the hockey world knows that he didn\u2019t do anything wrong (on that play). He plays the game to win. That\u2019s what everyone\u2019s trying to do. And it\u2019s unfortunate something happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never want to see one of your best players to go down,\u201d Gudas said. \u201cI understand that. I would not want to see one of our players go down with injury. That thing happens hundred times, thousand times every season. Unfortunately, accidents happen out there. You never want see anybody get hurt, but it does happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IRVINE, Calif. \u2013 Radko Gudas ended up as the center of attention in an Olympic quarterfinal hockey game,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[233,5,122,54125,3328,159,5190,5189,4,2602],"class_list":{"0":"post-470698","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-anaheim-ducks","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-islanders","11":"tag-mens-olympic-ice-hockey","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-islanders","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkislanders","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-olympics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116129559175410930","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}