Golyshev Seeks And Destroys

We talked about Jake McCabe's hit on Patrik Laine on The Hockey Show last night and I was on CBC radio talking about it earlier this week. Jake McCabe is a solid hockey player who simply threw a great hit on Laine at the right time, and the results were McCabe's face being bruised and battered from Laine's helmet while Laine is out with a concussion. When players run into one another, sometimes injuries happen. That's simply the laws of physics. McCabe's hit, however, looks like it belongs in figure skating after seeing the hit that Anatoly Golyshev threw on former NHLer Vaclav Nedorost in the KHL yesterday.

Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg held a 2-1 lead over HC Slovan Bratislava late in the third period. Slovan was looking for the equalizer in the hopes of sending this game to overtime or possibly winning in regulation time. With 4:48 to play in the game, let's go to the video and see what happens.

Holy moly. That was a vicious hit. It's never a good sign for a player when the stretcher and medical team are on the ice less than a minute after he goes down. Nedorost, as you can see and might expect, is in a lot of pain. You can see from the camera angle as they get him on the stretcher that his nose is bleeding profusely, and they have him lying somewhat on his side. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not doctor, but I'm going to say that Nedorost is out indefinitely.

The bloodied face of Nedorost makes it pretty clear that Golyshev made contact with the head. The replay around the 51-second mark shows Nedorost's head snapping back in a whiplash-like impact, and the shoulder of Golyshev basically acts as the stopping point for all forward momentum by Nedorost. When Nedorost falls to the ice, he doesn't brace himself and you can clearly see his head and shoulder areas make contact with the ice as the initial point of contact in the fall. If he didn't have a concussion from the whiplash, he most surely has one from the fall.

What makes this hit particularly vicious is that fact that nearly a second elapses after Nedorost has passed the puck away until the time he is hit. It's a late hit, it's a dirty hit, and it's clearly a hit that should come with a suspension for Golyshev. The headshot alone is worthy of a suspension, but the fact that this hit came late should tack on additional games to that suspension. Yes, Golyshev was bee-lining for Nedorost prior to the hit when he still had the puck, but the responsibility is on the player throwing the hit to let up. Golyshev didn't even slow up let alone let up, and he should be suspended for a significant period of time for this dangerous and vicious hit.

The officials recognized the severity of the hit, thankfully, and assessed a five-minute major for a check to the head and a game misconduct for Golyshev's indiscretion. On the power-play, Slovan did score their tying goal as Kyle Chipchura beat Vladimir Sokhatsky with 37 seconds remaining in the game. That power-play and goal seemed to swing the momentum in Slovan's favor because they also scored the overtime winner just 2:05 into the extra period as Jeff Taffe notched the winner off a feed from Jonathan Cheechoo.

I'm quite certain that Slovan is happy about the win, but more concerned about their fallen teammate in Nedorost. No one ever wants to see a dirty hit like that thrown, and it's even worse when it results in what appears to be a major injury. Reports today suggest that Nedorost's season is over with a major concussion, and you have to wonder if the 34 year-old's career might be over after seeing him carted off the ice on a stretcher.

Perhaps the worst part of this whole situation? Nedorost missed some time earlier this season with an injury and appeared to be just getting back into form. Slovan will miss his contributions as he's now sidelined for the foreseeable future thanks to a needless and dangerous play by Anatoly Golyshev who should be suspended for a long time.

Simply brutal.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!