McKenna: Deep Dive Into Wednesday’s Controversial Reaves-Subban Collision

By: Mike McKenna

P.K. Subban didn’t do anything wrong or reckless when Ryan Reaves was injured on Wednesday night.

It wasn’t a purposeful slew foot or attempt to injure an opponent. It was a simple case of two big, strong players going for the puck in a tight space and their legs getting crossed up. These types of plays happen. Hockey is fast. It’s physical. And plays develop in the blink of an eye.

It’s so easy to overanalyze these situations. Video replay is a wonderful tool – but it has to be used with context. Showing something at 1/4 speed has a tendency to make even the most mundane events seem malicious.

When you slow the clip down frame-by-frame and hyper analyze the collision, I can understand why people might believe Subban acted recklessly. Does his left foot sweep Reaves’ right leg out from underneath him? Sure. But take a close look in the split second before the injury occurs.

Ryan Reaves went down hard during tonight's @NYRangers preseason game. Could be a big loss for the Blueshirts. pic.twitter.com/Z61cxZzWIs

— DailyFaceoff.com Hockey (@DFOHockey) October 7, 2021

Reaves initiates the contact. He’s anticipating a board battle for puck possession and turns hard into Subban. He’s trying to box him out. It’s an innocuous play, but it throws Subban off balance and puts all of his weight on the right foot. When he tries to bring his left foot forward and down to the ice, that’s when the perceived slew foot happens.

“If you watch me, I have a wide stance all the time,” Subban said in his postgame media availability. “That’s why I’m hard to knock off my feet, because I’m always like that. So sometimes when you’re in a position to try to move, that’s what happens. Legs get caught up and things happen.”

Subban was adamant that it was an accident.

“It’s just unfortunate. I hate to see that. Obviously you saw my reaction after it happened just trying to help him. I just hope it’s not too bad.”

There was no penalty called on the play, which didn’t surprise recently retired NHL referee Tim Peel, now a contributor to The Daily Faceoff..

“In real time I don’t think you’d catch it because it just looks like two players going for the puck. And I don’t think PK intentionally meant to kick his feet out.” Peel said. “But as you can see in slow motion, Subban’s left skate makes contact with Reaves’ right foot. That caused him to go down and be injured on the play. At the most this would be a two minute penalty for interference or tripping.”

That makes sense. Whether it was intentional or not, Subban did trip Reaves.

What doesn’t make sense is Chris Kreider going after Subban at the start of the second and third periods demanding a fight. I understand that his Rangers teammate was injured, and Kreider is trying to send a message that it won’t be tolerated. But this was an accident. Subban knew that Reaves was hurt and immediately tended to his ailing opponent. He was instantly remorseful.

Sometimes players get so wrapped up in the notion of necessary vengeance that they can’t let things go. Not every injury should result in another player having to answer the bell. It’s purely posturing.

Behind closed doors a lot of players roll their eyes when these fights happen. They know it’s silly. But players always want to show how much they care about their teammates. All you have to do is listen to post-game comments after a fight-filled matchup. 

Players talk about sticking together. Standing up for one another. Having each other’s back. You could put a robot on stage and know what to expect.

There’s a difference between a dirty hit and an accident. And that distinction is important when it comes to fighting. Forcing someone to drop the mitts for reckless or premeditated actions still has its place in hockey. The policing aspect is real. But it needs to be warranted. And in this case, it wasn’t.