First off I can't stand Kevin Bieksa, he has been running around all over the ice acting like a "Bush League" hack... My question is to you is, do you think this is the same kind of hit as the Raffi Torres hit on Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook? I think their different hits, in my opinion Brent Seabrook never touched the puck behind the Hawks net, but Kevin Bieksa did have possession of the puck. I want to know what you think, is this the same kind of hit?
Vancouver Sun --- Bieksa didn't see him approaching, was vulnerable, and Bickell lowered his shoulder and drilled the defenceman in the head, sending him flying, a tremendous collision of the type that is certain to make the next Rock'em Sock'em collection.
It was a virtually identical hit to the one with which Vancouver's Raffi Torres flattened the vulnerable Blackhawks defenceman Brent Seabrook, concussing him, in Game 3. The only difference was that Bieksa had the puck, Seabrook did not, so where Torres was handed a minor penalty for interference, Bickell was entirely unpenalized.
We don't yet know what the effect on Bieksa's brain will be. Seabrook's symptoms didn't appear until a day later.
Both hits were, in exactly the same way, deplorable: blindside hits targeting the head of an unsuspecting opponent, the kinds of hits the NHL ought to want to be rid of, but seems instead to make every possible excuse for, even to encourage.
