New York Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba got a $5,000 fine on Saturday night for high-sticking Boston Bruins center Trent Frederic during a game between their respective teams earlier that day. Trouba appeared to lose his balance briefly, and in the process of balancing out, he smacked Frederic in the head with his stick. However, it didn’t seem completely accidental either, and that has a lot of the hockey world upset at the fact that he only got a fine for the incident.
Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk talked more about Trouba’s high-stick and how it should have gotten a harsher punishment on "Daily Faceoff Live" during their Fair or Foul segment.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Now, I know some people might say Trouba’s high-stick was accidental. I would say you need to watch where your stick is going, and it was maybe not that accidental. I think a $5,000 fine was not nearly enough. Fair or foul?
Frank Seravalli: Fair. This should’ve been an easy one-game suspension, we saw the one from Evgeni Malkin. You can’t begin to get inside a player’s head, and the point with the Department of Player Safety, the point they make with hits all the time is that they didn’t mean to do that. Well yeah, I didn’t mean to go through a stop sign and kill you either, but there’s a thing called manslaughter for a reason. You didn’t go it intending to smash someone in the head, but…
Tyler Yaremchuk: You’re responsible for your actions!
Frank Seravalli: 100%! And if you’re going to swing your stick that wildly, even if you’re going backward. We’ve all been around the rink long enough to know that Trouba has some control and the ability to avoid that. $5,000, weak.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Weak, very weak.
You can watch the full episode here…
More must-reads: