No suspension for T.J. Oshie’s hit on Sam Bennett? Here’s why

Matt Larkin
Matt Larkin(MLarkinHockey)
No suspension for T.J. Oshie’s hit on Sam Bennett? Here’s why

There are borderline hits, and there are brazenly predatory hits, sure to be punished by the NHL’s Department of Player Safety.

Except sometimes, upon closer inspection, even those obvious hits aren’t as illegal as they appear to be. That was the case with T.J. Oshie’s hit on Sam Bennett during the Florida Panthers’ comeback win over the Washington Capitals in Game 4 of their first-round series Monday night.

The first thing we see: what looks, from most perspectives according to last night’s Twitter discourse, like a clear head shot. Oshie’s shoulder and elbow catch a lot of Bennett’s head, which snaps back violently. It arguably looks like the head is the principal point of contact, which would violate rule 48.1 for illegal check to the head.

Yet Oshie will not have a hearing or face supplemental discipline, as multiple reporters have indicated in the hours since the collision. How? Sometimes, the best way to figure things out is to put our DOPS hats on and review the play forensically.

1. Oshie actually shows no sign of picking or targeting the head. His elbow doesn’t extend prior to contact. He doesn’t alter his path if you watch his skates. In fact, he’s looking down at the moment of impact. So he gets off on this criterion in the rule 48.1 section of the NHL rulebook:

Whether the player attempted to hit squarely through the opponent’s body and the head was not “picked” as a result of poor timing, poor angle of approach, or unnecessary extension of the body upward or outward.


2. The Head is not actually the principal point of contact if you see this vantage point posted by TNT’s Paul Bissonnette. The hit is delivered to the upper sternum area.

3. Bennett’s skates turn toward Oshie and into the hit at the last second.

4. Bennett raises his stick perpendicular to the ice before impact, and it’s his own stick that catches him in the face and knocks his helmet and visor up.

Points (3) and (4) get Oshie off on this 48.1 criterion:

Whether the opponent materially changed the position of his body or head immediately prior to or simultaneously with the hit in a way that significantly contributed to the head contact.

So it’s a relatively clean hit that has some unfortunate incidental contact, partially caused by Bennett raising his stick.

Does that mean we have to like the hit? No. But if we don’t, our issue is with the rulebook rather than the DOPS in this case. Incidental contact with the head as the result of a “clean” hit is currently legal. If we want a play like this one to be suspended, we have to change the rulebook. The DOPS is beholden to it.

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