After watching the injury to Crosby many times and agree that Niskanen was not intending to crosscheck Crosby in the face, but he did intend to crosscheck him. On the replay, you will hear over and over that Crosby lost his balance on the play and fell toward Niskanen’s hands which were shoved into Crosby’s head. It happened fast, the camera didn’t even stay on the play very long, but the impact is HUGE!

What is not spoken on the play is that Ovechkin is the one that knocked Crosby off-balance and into Niskanen. Without that hit, the Niskanen crosscheck may not have even drawn a penalty. We wait with baited breath on the fate of our beloved No. 87. Please be OK.