Flyers fans outraged over Malkin’s defense of vicious stick swinging incident

In case you missed it, Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Evgeni Malkin was ejected from last night’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers after he viciously swung his stick at the head of Flyers forward Michael Raffl.

Thankfully, Malkin did not make contact with Raffl, at least not solidly, but just because of the sheer recklessness of the play and because Malkin’s intent was clearly to injure, he was handed a 10 minute misconduct and ejected from the game. He’ll have a hearing with NHL Player Safety later today to decide his punishment. 

Here’s the play in question:

Here it is slowed down and from a different angle:

Yikes… no matter which was you look at it that is a DIRTY play.

After the game Malkin didn’t seem to shy away from the fact that what he did was dirty, but he defended his actions saying no one was hurt.

“I’m not trying to hit his face. … I know it's dirty, but I missed,” Malkin said. “He just like dived and the referee give me five minutes. [He wasn’t] injured, not bleeding, nothing.”

“I didn’t hit him in the face,” Malkin said. “If I had touched him in the face, for sure, I would get suspended. It’s a high stick, but it’s not like I broke his face. I think I won’t get suspended.”

Suffice it to say, that explanation did NOT go over well with Flyers fans. “No one got hurt, so what’s the big deal” doesn’t seem like the best policy and it seems like NHL Player Safety agrees. Malkin will have a hearing the Player Safety later today to determine his punishment.