Hagg ejected after questionable hit on Kyle Connor.

A lot of arguing about this hit.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Hagg ejected after questionable hit on Kyle Connor.

I get the feeling that fans in Philadelphia and fans in Winnipeg are going to feel rather differently about this particular hit. 

The Philadelphia Flyers continued their road trip on Sunday when they traveled to Winnipeg, Manitoba to take on the Jets at the MTS Center. The Flyers were coming off the heels of a big win the night before against the Buffalo Sabres to it made sense that this might be a let down game for them, but not one could have predicted just how much of a let down it would be.

The Jets completely dominated the Flyers from start to finish never really giving them a chance to get into the game and it was obvious that this was cause quite a bit of frustration on the Flyers bench. In spite of that however I do not believe that the hit from 23 year old Flyers defenseman Robert Hagg was done out of anger or malice. 

The Flyers were down 4 - 1 with just seconds left to go in the game's 2nd period when Hagg delivered and ugly looking hit to the back of 22 year old Winnipeg Jets forward Kyle Connor. There's no question that Hagg hit him on the numbers, and did so while Connor was dangerously close to the boards, and as a result Hagg was awarded a 5 minute major and promptly escorted off the ice by the National Hockey League officials overseeing the game. 

That being said though some have characterized this as the dirty play of an angry player down by 3 goals, while I think it likely has a great deal more to do with Connors' actions on the play than any anger from Hagg. You can see quite clearly from the replay that Connor does spot Hagg coming for him and knowing that contact is coming it appears that he quite deliberately turns his back to Hagg in order to force him to let up on the hit. Hagg should have done exactly that but instead he drilled Connor from behind and nearly sent him head first into the boards. 

For this reason I do not expect that the National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety will seek to hand out any additional to Hagg for what was admittedly a dangerous hit.

[pub]

Source: