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The Washington Capitals will be without forward T.J. Oshie for "quite some time" after he was felled by an illegal hit by Hurricanes forward Warren Foegele in the third period of the Canes' 2-1 series-tying win Thursday.
Caps head coach Todd Reirden called it "an extremely dangerous play" and a hit on a defenseless player who, "won't be playing anytime soon."
But that assessment was not shared by his counterpart on the Hurricanes bench.
“I thought he just pushed him... He crashed into the boards hard, and that’s when the arm went up because he stayed down," Carolina head coach Rod Brind’Amour said.
“You don’t like to see that, but more than anything, (Oshie) was just not ready for the hit. You see a lot of hits that are way, way worse than that. So I think he just went in awkward," he said. "Barely hit him, I thought, really. I mean he gave him a little shove, but it certainly wasn't what you've been seeing out here."
And the NHL will not hold a hearing or suspend Foegele for the hit, per TVA Sports' Renaud Lavoie.
When asked how the play changes things, Brind’Amour added: "We have way more injuries than they do, so I don’t worry about their team."
"The idea that he barely hit him is a joke," Paulsen added. "Don't come at me and tell me Rod Brind'Amour, 'Oh, well, I don't really (think) he hit him too bad. I thought it was more awkward.' He sounded like a moron last night."
But when the Carolina coach said Oshie wasn't ready for the hit, Rouhier sees that as an obvious acknowledgment of a defenseless player.
"Here's your translation, he's not ready for the hit because he's defenseless. We have rules to govern the sport, sir. One of those rules is you don't hit a defenseless person," Rouhier said. "That was the height of jackassery to me."
"I was trying to lift his stick, trying to give him a little nudge," he said after the game. "It was a little unfortunate play there; I wasn’t trying to hurt him or anything. I hope he’s okay.”
Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin wasn't having any of that.
"It’s a dirty play," Ovi said. "It has to be not two minutes. It has to be different call.”
Paulsen agreed with Ovechkin.
"(Foegele) shoved him right in the back with a crosscheck, you saw the entire back, this is textbook boarding," he said. "You boarded a guy and he got hurt and he's lost for an extended period of time."