Nathan MacKinnon only manager 56 seconds of ice time until he was dropped by a hit by Taylor Hall. On the play MacKinnon's stick ran up and struck him in the face on the play. MacKinnon fell to the ice hard and he was gushing blood from his nose. Taylor Hall was assessed a major penalty on the play, but it was later reduced to a 2 minute minor.
"We might have spent a little too much time [chasing Hall], but that's why I was hoping Hall was going to settle it with me and we could move on,» Landeskog said. «Hall didn't wanna answer for it, and that's unfortunate.»
Avalanche head coach also shared, "I think in the regular season, you just have to answer for things you do on the ice, you know? Just because the officials or the Department of Player Safety doesn't deem something that bad, it's what your team is willing to accept as playing within the way they see the game should be played. And if your teammates don't like something that a guy on another team does, and they feel like that was inappropriate, then they're going to try and get you to answer the bell or force you into it. That's the way I see it. The players discipline the game as much as the officials do.»
Gabriel Landeskog finished his comments with this, "they've made it pretty clear over the last couple of years that they're trying to get rid of those [hits]. At the end of the day, when one of your best friends and teammates and ultimately your best player gets hit like that, you just gotta make sure that next time anybody thinks about doing that, they have to pay a price and there will be some consequences with that. Doesn't have to be a dirty play for us to feel that way. It's just the way it is.
