Ledge

Don't exaggerate so much here, come on. Players don't protect themselves as much anymore because the NHL has changed. The Matt Cookes and, yes, Marty McSorleys, of the league are becoming rarer and rarer, and there are less potentially career-ending hits being dished out, so yes, players tend to protect themselves less. But you're totally missing my point' they shouldn't need to. If Evans was this fancy little superstar who relied on goons to protect him his entire career, there's no way he would have survived the NCAA, AHL, and now NHL playing the way he does, as a bottom-six grinder kind of guy. I think it's fair to say he's had some experience protecting himself in the past, right? So if it's his judgment, which is 'hey, I've got the puck behind an empty net and I'm gonna wrap it around as quickly as possible to win us the game', versus the judgment of the frustrated Scheifele, which is probably 'Evans is going to score right here unless I miraculously dive and stop it, but why the hell would I do that, I'm mad about my teams' and my own performance tonight so I'm going to take out my anger on him'. How the hell is Evans supposed to expect Scheifele flying in and knocking him unconscious? What's he supposed to do? Look up, see Scheifele raging down the ice, and just sit behind the net and wait for him to stop the game winning goal? Or should I risk getting hit and score that mf? It's like arguing with a million George Parros's

https://twitter.com/MattBarnaby3636/status/1400476112006823941?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1400476112006823941|twgr^|twcon^s1_c10&ref_url=

This guy just echoes my argument. 

Yeah that’s a bad game to say it’s Evans’ fault. You can’t and shouldn’t expect Schiefle to fly in like that. I bet he was aware of his surroundings, did the quick calculation that Schiefle was too far away to stop him, incorrectly assumed that a player who knows they’re powerless to stop the play would ease up, and incorrectly assumed that the player coming down was a violent angry monster bent on taking his head off. Schiefle knew he couldn’t stop him. Everyone on the ice expected him to slow down or otherwise stop the charging when he knew he was toast. But he didn’t. He made a very, very bad decision once he knew he lost. That’s not a hockey play. The rule book is there so players can assume that the guy barrelling at them from centre ice won’t fly full tilt into their head. The rule book says Evans is allowed to go into that position by saying what Schiefle did is illegal. It’s illegal to get cross checked in the throat, so I don’t have my shoulders at my ears covering my neck with my body every time I’m in a net front battle, because I am allowed to assume the other guy won’t cross check me in the throat. Same thing.