Philadelphia Flyers forward Zac Rinaldo was ejected on Tuesday night and is probably facing a lengthy suspension from the NHL for boarding Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang during the Flyers' 3-2 overtime win.
The hit knocked Letang out of the game and forced an already shorthanded Penguins defense to play most of the evening without their best defenseman and power play quarterback (the Penguins ended up going 0-for-6 on the power play) and turned the remainder of the game into a fight-filled contest.
After the game, Rinaldo spoke to the media and along with admitting that he is probably facing a suspension for the hit, also joked that he "changed the game" with his hit.
Zac Rinaldo: "I changed the whole game, man. Who knows what woulda happened if I didn't do what I did?"
— Dave Isaac (@davegisaac) January 21, 2015
Joking or not, that is an unbelievable comment that basically comes across as saying that it's worth knocking out a star player with a cheap shot if it means two points in the standings.
There are enough variables involved to warrant Rinaldo getting a lengthy suspension from the league (his history, the fact there was an injury, as well as the fact that it was a really dirty hit) but he should probably a couple of more tacked on just for saying something as idiotic as that after the fact.
It's also worth pointing out that this entire incident happened with the Penguins' Steve Downie, a player that was brought in partly for his ability to -- in theory -- deter that type of stuff from happening to their star players, on the ice standing no more than 20 feet away. This is just another reminder that no player -- not an enforcer, not an agitator, not a big physical presence of any kind, not Steve Downie -- is going to stop players like Zac Rinaldo from doing things like that.
The only way NHL teams can prevent losing players at the hands of Zac Rinaldo is stop employing people like Zac Rinaldo.
