Kronwall Finally Called Out for Dirty Hits (sort of)

Ok - I've watched and read too many people say Niklas Kronwall's hit on Havlet was ok. I can't take it anymore! It was not a good, clean hit.

Kronwall did two things wrong:

1. It was interference. Havlet never touched the puck. Yes, its a tough one, Kronwall is trying to time his hit to coincide with when Havlet is going to gain possession of the puck. When Havlet struggles to reel the puck in, its too late to for Kronwall to stop.

Kronwall himself said it was interference:
"From my perspective, the way I think things happened, the puck went off the wall, he went to pick it up. I stepped in and he never saw me coming. He never touched the puck, but the puck was right there."

2. Kronwall left his feet. Just watch the video. How this is somehow up for debate is beyond me. As Jibbles points out on his fantastic "Its cool to hate" post - "The guy hasn't laid a legal big hit his entire career. How he is able to continuously leave his feet for every check and never get called for it is a mystery. The guy is the dirtiest hitter outside of Dion Phaneuf, yet is treated like he's a good bigtime hitter." (PS - This was posted prior to Game 7 of the Ducks series.)

Mike Babcock:
"I thought it was a great hockey hit, so far from being gutless it's not even funny. He did it right. He didn't leave his feet. The puck was right in between the guy's feet. I mean, no way." Uh, I mean, yes way. Just watch the video, Mike. He left his feet!

More from Babcock:
"I mean, I went over it a hundred times before I came in here. I wanted to see, did he leave his feet. Kroner, what he does, usually he's got so much pop in him, he explodes through the guy; at the end of the check when he's done, he's off the ice. That wasn't the case here at all in the situation."

So what Mike is saying is that Kronwall's hits are legal because he jumps up into the guy as he makes the hit. Mike, that doesn't make it better. I would say that's even worse.

Colin Campbell:
"(Kronwall's) got the rep for it. I know as players, we want to see head shots taken away from the game. We've talked about it. It needs to be addressed. I have no problem if he comes in and uses his shoulder and hits; there's nothing wrong with that. But he didn't do that. He came into a guy that did not have the puck, was exposed, jumped, forearms, exploded through his head. That isn't part of the game. Nobody wants that to be part of the game. And he keeps doing it. Somehow, some way, it's got to stop."

Well, then you'd better have your refs start calling penalties each time Kroner is does it.
These are the 5 top Kronwall hits from last year's playoffs. Guess what he does every single time?