A Few Words On Patrick Bordeleau

Photo: Hannah Foslien/Getty Images

Three days ago, the entire hockey world was in uproar over Matt Cooke's knee on Tyson Barrie. Barrie was ruled out with an MCL injury for 4-6 weeks, and Cooke was eventually suspended for seven games by the Department of Player Safety.

During last night's game four, Colorado fourth liner Patrick Bordeleau took a run at Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon. Here is the video of the play courtesy of KSTP's Chris Long (or watch it here in slow motion).

If you do not think that was a dirty hit, think again. It appeared to be an attempt to make a knee on knee collision, similar to what Cooke did to Barrie on Monday.

Finally watched Bordeleau's attempted knee on Spurgeon with 7:12 left. That's the definition of intent.
— Michael Russo (@Russostrib) April 25, 2014

Even a noted Denver Post writer thought it was a dirty hit.

@JohnAnderson29 @Russostrib I hadn't seen that hit and neither did any other Minny media. But, yes, it was a dirty looking hit
— Adrian Dater (@adater) April 25, 2014

So if there is a consensus of the fact it was a dirty play, why is there A) no penalty on the play and B) how is Bordeleau allowed to get off Scot free?

I don't normally complain about the DoPS (because I have given up on them at this point), but how is this allowed? Are we really a league that will allow a retaliatory strike like that to go unpunished simply because Cooke was not ejected from Monday's game?

The Wild are very fortunate that Spurgeon was not injured at all on the play. VERY fortunate.


Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell