The collision between Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin early in Saturday's game against the Ottawa Senators caused a stir, and two days later one of the players who caused the contact offered his version of the facts.
The victim briefly lost consciousness after receiving a blow to the head from Mathieu Joseph and Parker Kelly. While the two “Sens” skaters each received a minor penalty, the wearer of the Wings color regained his senses before retreating in pain to the locker room. Detroit also placed his name on the injured list on Monday.
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Even after several hours, the topic remains hot, especially since David Perron wanted to respond by double-checking Artem Zub in the face, a gesture that logically gets him banned. In Ottawa, Joseph tried as best he could to calm the situation when reporters met him on the sidelines of morning training.
“It's happening so quickly. During a short-handed game, you see a man and the puck in front of your net and try to clear it. Obviously the referees decided how to award the penalties, but at that point I didn't really know what was going on. We tried to remove the disk from our zone regardless of who was near the cage and who wasn't,” the striker said in an interview relayed by the Sportsnet account.
Fast sport
For Quebecers, it is sometimes the nature of hockey to explain this type of mishap that befell Larkin and several others.
“It's bad luck, we don't want a similar story to happen to a player,” he added, indicating that he had apologized for the gesture in question. It was more chaotic than anything else. […] It's a fast-paced sport and things happen, but we're all competitors. We’re trying to win.”
Joseph is not considered the most vicious player in hockey, especially since he never reached the 40 penalty minute mark in a season. However, he has 25 in 22 games this year. Kelly, for his part, has already demonstrated his talent as a bully, even if he only handed out two minor penalties in Ottawa in 2023-2024.
The Senators host the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday.