Hockey is a game of speed, of physicality and skill. It’s a contact sport, so there are rules to reduce injuries and encourage fair play. It’s my favorite sport to watch, and if I had any coordination whatsoever, I would play it, too.

What we saw last night was not hockey.

We know that the NHL doesn’t take head injuries seriously, but at the very least there should be an extra two there for roughing. Let’s be as generous as possible with Subban’s part of the play.

So the Pens should be down a man while Crosby heads to the locker room for four minutes, but instead we get this:

At this point it’s 3-0 and the Preds very much deserve to be trailing. But the shenanigans don’t stop.

Sidney Crosby threw a bottle onto the ice during play (right before the 5-0 goal was scored). You cannot do that. Player or coach, accidentally on purpose, that’s two minutes for delay of game.

So those are two goals scored against while the Penguins should be shorthanded.

But whatever. We’ve already established that the Predators were playing like hot garbage and undoubtedly would have continued to fail to connect on passes during whatever powerplays they were awarded.

The Forsberg got two for playing for Nashville, I guess.

And the Preds wound up shorthanded out of this:

But at least we got to see Arvy’s first NHL fight.

The moral of this gif fest is that rules in hockey exist for a reason. Call penalties as they occur or stick to some sort of reasonable standard or you wind up with crap like Evgeni Malkin tackling Roman Josi to the ice, whose only crime is being really handsome, and coming out with a powerplay.

And it’s not over.

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