Former Maple Leafs Enforcer Takes Nick Cousins' Side In Knee-on-Knee Controversy
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Former Maple Leafs forward Jay Rosehill vehemently disagrees with the general public opinion that Nick Cousins was at fault for his kkne-on-knee with Jacob Quillan.
It seemed like the general consensus following Saturday night was that Nick Cousins was at fault for his knee-on-knee collision with Toronto Maple Leafs rookie Jacob Quillan.
With Quillan traversing the neutral zone, he side-stepped Cousins' hit attempt but was unable to avoid the knee contact. Cousins was the one who took the brunt of the collision as he was forced out of the game and is out for an indefinite period of time.
Quillan, on the other hand, finished out the remainder of the game but was an absentee at Monday's practice session, which puts some doubt on his status heading into Wednesday's game against Minnesota.
While head coach Craig Berube and even the panel on Hockey Night in Canada felt that Cousins was the perpetrator and should have been penalized, former Maple Leafs enforcer Jay Rosehill believes otherwise:
"I don't agree with it at all, look at Cuzzy, pause it right there. He's going for the hit and Quillan's the one who moves to the right trying to avoid a hit.
Like Quillan jumped to the right leaving his legs in the lane that his body was in where the guy is going. You think Cuzzy did anything wrong?
Cuzzy's going to make a body-check and Quillan pulls to the right and it happens every time with a god damn kneeing penalty, a guy's jumping out of the freaking way trying to avoid a hit, which is fine, you can sidestep a guy but if your legs are left in the lane where the body contact was going to happen...
you're going to get your knee hurt. I don't agree with Chief whatsoever, I think coaches always are annoyed when a knee happens and they blame the other guy."
Like Quillan jumped to the right leaving his legs in the lane that his body was in where the guy is going. You think Cuzzy did anything wrong?
Cuzzy's going to make a body-check and Quillan pulls to the right and it happens every time with a god damn kneeing penalty, a guy's jumping out of the freaking way trying to avoid a hit, which is fine, you can sidestep a guy but if your legs are left in the lane where the body contact was going to happen...
you're going to get your knee hurt. I don't agree with Chief whatsoever, I think coaches always are annoyed when a knee happens and they blame the other guy."
Rosehill would later add that kneeing incidents continue to happen and it's always the initiator that gets in trouble because the other player is trying to avoid the hit, which is something that drives him crazy:
"To a tee, though, going back to the World Juniors and everything that's happened this year, there's tons of kneeing penalties. Guys don't take the freaking hits anymore, they try to side step and it leaves your knees there. And who is the one that's hurt? It's Cuzzy.
He's hurt, and it sounds pretty serious. He might've tore his knee or something like that. You never know whose knee is going to go when there's knee on knee contact, but it's dangerous and always has been...
Just because you go through a guy's knees doesn't mean you're at fault, it drives me nuts that every time we see a guy hurt his knee they're like 'that's a kneeing penalty, he should've gotten a penalty' but what did the guy do that got his knees clipped, jump out of the freaking way?
You're putting yourself at risk, I hate it when there's no responsibility on people to protect themselves."
He's hurt, and it sounds pretty serious. He might've tore his knee or something like that. You never know whose knee is going to go when there's knee on knee contact, but it's dangerous and always has been...
Just because you go through a guy's knees doesn't mean you're at fault, it drives me nuts that every time we see a guy hurt his knee they're like 'that's a kneeing penalty, he should've gotten a penalty' but what did the guy do that got his knees clipped, jump out of the freaking way?
You're putting yourself at risk, I hate it when there's no responsibility on people to protect themselves."
Rosehill believes that the player going for the hit is put in a vulnerable position when the other player tries to avoid the check. He adds that he understands that players can sidestep oncoming hits but when the legs are left in the lane, it's always going to lead to a disastrous collision.
It's certainly an polarizing take at the moment, considering that most people in the media believed he should have at least gotten a penalty, including Berube and the panelists at Hockey Night in Canada, but Rosehill does make a few interesting points.
Unfortunately, plays like this are going to continue to happen since players have a proclivity to avoid checks - especially in the neutral zone - rather than take them head on, which seems like the safe thing to do, as silly as that sounds.
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