Damn, Cam...

Everybody is in an uproar over the latest suspension-drawing cheap shot, that of New Jersey's Cam Janssen on Toronto's Tomas Kaberle. Janssen drew a 3-game sitdown from the league office, which is well deserved given the lateness of the hit, and the proximity to the boards.

The thing that gets me about all this, however, is the chorus labelling the latest of a series of head-shots that are putting players' careers in danger, if not their lives.

I've seen the replay again and again, and don't really see it as Janssen going head-hunting. It was definitely a late hit, no argument about that, but you had a combination of Kaberle skating backwards near the boards, which left him no leverage to withstand the shot, and in the final moment as Janssen comes in Kaberle ducks his head about a foot (check out the link earlier in this paragraph, and focus on the final few seconds). The resulting impact sends Kaberle careening gruesomely into the boards, and thank goodness he was released from the hospital after evaluation.

It was a late hit, a dirty hit, no question about it, but I just don't see it as an intentional head-shot.

NOTE: The YouTube link was found on Raking Leafs. Someday I'll figure out how to find and embed YouTube videos into my posts...

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