To be totally frank and honest with you, I was saddened last night because of the reaction we saw to the hit of Dumba on Pavs. I'm going to discuss the hit briefly, but I'm sick to my stomach watching social media discuss this whole incident.
I'll give you my honest take on the hit. When I first saw it, I was up in arms because of how it looked and the injury that followed. I was furious. Watching Pavelski staggering around and not realizing where he was was scary and made me think about his 12 year old son and his wife having to watch their loved one struggle on the ice. After looking back at it, I can see why some people say it wasn't a head hit, but regardless of whether Pavs' head was the main point of contact, it was a very dirty play. I've been consistent about this on Twitter. I think it was a late hit, Pavelski was no where even close to the puck, and during the hit, Dumba left his feet. I still don't understand how you can view that hit and say that the Stars don't come out of that incident with a powerplay at the very least. I believe it should've been a major penalty.
You can agree with me or disagree with me or whatever. That's fine. But what I really want to talk about is the way the two fanbases are reacting to each other. The lack of respect that both fan bases & FEW (keyword few) media members have had for each other in discussing this on social media is absolutely barbaric and ridiculous. Nowadays, you have to be really careful about headlines because people will infer things about what the article says without actually reading the article, and you know what? I did exactly that.
There was an article headline I read from a media member in the DFW area that will remain unnamed that seemed to suggest a certain Stars' player should purposefully injure Dumba. As I'm typing out this blog post, I still haven't read the article to see what it says, but I think the damage is done already. It seems like they're calling for Dumba's health. I really don't want to see anybody else get hurt and seemingly callingly for someone to get hurt is moronic.
Now, I'm kinda speaking towards Stars' fans. It's too late with this Pavs injury, but I really think we need to be more careful in the future about not being "that fanbase". We don't want to be "that fanbase". Don't get me wrong, I love Stars' fans and I think we have some of the best fans in the world, but we don't want to be the fanbase that has a bad reputation. There are some hockey fanbases across North America that have bad reputations because of how they've reacted to situations like this. I TOTALLY understand that we should be upset about the lack of justice we feel for the loss of Pavelski, but do we really want to say that retribution & justice should be served by Dumba getting hurt? I don't think that's the way to go.
It just sucks that the excitement of the playoffs built the entire weekend and instead of discussing the great goaltending we witnessed from both teams or the fact that the game on Monday was the longest playoff game in Wild history or the fact that the Stars dominated play from basically the 2nd period on, I'm discussing the reaction on social media to the hit.
Pavs, I'm praying for you and your family. I hope that you'll be able to the ice soon. If there is anyone in the league that deserves a certain silver and sparkle-y cup, it's you.
Go Stars.
