NHL under fire as Quebec police probe notorious hit
After the earthquake, the aftershocks. When Zdeno Chara sent Max Pacioretty careening into an unforgiving stanchion at the Bell Centre in Montreal Tuesday night, delivering a concussion and a fractured vertebra, it was as violent a play as hockey sees, more or less. It was one of those hits that sucks the air out of your lungs when you watch, and does it again when you see the replay…
… since Chara escaped a similar suspension, the reaction has become seismic, in and out of hockey. The list of those publicly upset includes, as of this writing, the owner of the Montreal Canadiens, Air Canada, every human being in Quebec, various federal and provincial politicians, and this nation’s Prime Minister.
Meanwhile, the Montreal police are investigating the incident on the direction of Quebec’s ministry of Public Security, who were advised to do so by Quebec’s Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions, which presumably includes no officials who root for the Boston Bruins in their spare time.