Several looks at the Matt Dumba hit on Patrick Kane pic.twitter.com/4bxAYAz02N
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) March 21, 2016
So this was quite the sequence during the Blackhawks‘ game against the Wild on Sunday night. Patrick Kane decided to try to carry the puck across the blue line with his head down and proceeded to get crushed by Matt Dumba.
Not the best play we’ve seen from Kane, and credit to Dumba for timing a major hit on one of the game’s premier players. Usually you don’t see Kane that vulnerable flying through the neutral zone and this time he paid dearly for it. The forward briefly went to the quiet room to undergo concussion protocol following the hit before returning to the ice in the third period.
Artemi Panarin, meanwhile, was having none of this. The Russian forward saw his linemate — and one of the biggest reasons for his breakout rookie campaign — get blown up near center ice and decided it was time to throw down. I guess we should’ve figured there was some fire in the 24-year-old. Coach Q liked the response, too.
Q on Panarin dropping the gloves. “I loved the response. Just like the crowd did.” #Blackhawks
— Scott King (@ScottKingMedia) March 21, 2016
However, the net result was still a roughing penalty for Panarin and a power play for Minnesota after laying out the league’s leading scorer. While we can appreciate the enthusiasm that Panarin showed in defending his teammate, something people often talk about wanting to see from players, it’s probably fair to say he’s more comfortable sniping at the goal than going for the fisticuffs.
At least we got this out of it:
A still image of Panarin after Kane got hit. pic.twitter.com/i2BNq9YDW1
— Bizza (@Bizzacore) March 21, 2016