At first glance, it may have looked like the hit Raffi Torres threw on Marian Hossa Tuesday night was clean. Watching it on TV during game speed made it tough to judge, but after seeing the replay it’s clear that Torres did a number of illegal things. As you can hear in the call in the video above, former player and current Coyotes analyst Tyson Nash disagrees that the play was dirty.
“That is as clean of a hit as you are going to get,” Nash said after viewing the replay according to CSNChicago.com. “I don’t have a problem with this, he comes in, he explodes through that hit, and hits him with the left shoulder.”
The problem is he exploded through his head. Torres lined Hossa up after he had already released the puck, left his feet, and hit him high. It was a dirty play and Torres can expect a multiple-game suspension for it, despite the fact that the referee who was standing right next to the play somehow failed to see that Torres launched himself and made contact with Hossa’s head.
Perhaps the most disturbing part about the play is that it came on the exact one-year anniversary of Torres doing the same thing last year when he was with the Canucks. That time, he led with his elbow to the head and blindsided Brent Seabrook — another Blackhawks player. Torres had just returned from a four-game suspension for another dirty hit when that play occurred. Clearly he’s not getting the message. The NHL needs to send a stronger one this time around.
