Jacob Trouba goes head-hunting and Ondrej Palat makes him look silly for it
The New York Rangers have their backs against the ropes after dropping a 3-1 decision to the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning on home ice at Madison Square Garden on Thursday. Not a great position to be in if you're the Rangers, heading back to Tampa for an elimination game in enemy territory - especially when those enemies are the back-to-back Cup champs.
Speaking of "not a great position to be in", Tampa forward Ondrej Palat found himself in one of those positions during Thursday's Game 5 after being lined up for a massive hit from Rangers defender Jacob Trouba, who has seemingly been head-hunting in every round of these playoffs. Thankfully for Palat, he did manage to avoid getting elbowed in the head, but unfortunately for Trouba and Rangers fans, he ended up making Trouba look dumb in the process.
Clearly, Trouba was leading with the elbow and targeting the head of Palat, who had the awareness and wherewithal to avoid the collision. The play could have also resulted in a Bolts scoring chance were it not for a delayed offside call just inside the line.
With the Rangers' season on the line tomorrow night, I'd imagine we'll see a pretty hard-hitting game plan from the Rangers once again on Saturday.
| POLL | ||
10 JUIN | 178 ANSWERS Jacob Trouba goes head-hunting and Ondrej Palat makes him look silly for it Should Jacob Trouba have been suspended during these playoffs for any of his questionable hits? | ||
| Yes, at least once | 76 | 42.7 % |
| Yes, probably multiple times too | 53 | 29.8 % |
| No, all clean hits/attempts | 49 | 27.5 % |
| List of polls | ||
