Ryan Reaves knocked Filip Hronek out of the Red Wings' 4-1 loss to the Wild early in the first period Wednesday night with a bone-shuddering hit. A clean, bone-shuddering hit.
"I think Fil would want his play back, obviously exposing himself," Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said afterward.
Hronek was skating the puck through Detroit's zone when he briefly looked behind him. As soon as Hronek turned his head around, Reaves -- all 6'2 and 225 pounds of him -- skated through him like a freight train. No penalty was assessed on the play, which left Hronek dazed and bloodied.
"Just saw the last part," said Red Wings forward David Perron. "Obviously it’s tough to lose a guy like that from any hit. It was solid contact, so it’s tough."
"Fil had the puck and he was kind of looking back, kind of in a tough spot," said Red Wings defenseman Ben Chiarot. "And obviously when a guy like that is on the ice, those things can happen. Tough one to watch."
One of the NHL's most noted enforcers, Reaves has been suspended three times and fined an additional three others throughout his 13-year career. But he won't face any discipline in this case from the NHL's Department of Player Safety, which has deemed the hit on Hronek clean. Reaves kept his arms down, did not leave his feet and drove straight through Hronek's body. It was Hronek's own posture that caused the initial contact to the head.
Per the NHL rulebook, this is considered "unavoidable head contact," which is determined by “whether the opponent put himself in a vulnerable position by assuming a posture that made head contact on an otherwise full body check unavoidable.”
Lalonde said Hronek had looked behind him because he apparently expected a penalty to be called from a previous play and was waiting for Red Wings goalie Magnus Hellberg to leave his net, "as crazy as that sounds."
"It makes a little more sense now just to float through the zone with the puck there," said Lalonde. "But I’m sensitive to any contact to the head. In this day and age, we know what head contact is about. I know Reaves was not malicious with it, but it’s a shoulder on the head and the result is contact to the head. I is what it is. I think Fil would want that play back."
According to Lalonde, Hronek actually wanted to come back in the game, but was held out by the Wild medical staff -- "which was probably the right thing." Lalonde said Hronek "did well" in initial concussion protocol, but Minnesota's doctors were erring on the side of caution.
"The doctor (decided) after seeing the hit and talking through things, it was in his best interests to not come back," said Lalonde. "And he was disappointed because he wanted to come back, which says a lot for him."
Hronek, 25, has been arguably Detroit's best defenseman this season with 24 points in 29 games. He's second to only Moritz Seider in ice time. It's not yet clear whether he'll be sidelined moving forward, but Lalonde reiterated that "the fact fact that he wanted to come back and seemed in pretty good spirits is hopefully a good sign."
After Reaves delivered another big hit on Red Wings' defenseman Gustav Lindstrom later in the game, Chiarot challenged him to a fight. The scrap didn't last long as Chiarot almost immediately lost his feet, but he said it was "important to show that we're not going to be pushed around."
"I thought it was a good, hard hockey game, hard hits and was proud of the way our team responded," said Chiarot. "We’re not an overly physical team and that Minnesota team is built that way, so was pretty happy with our pushback."
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