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With the final seconds winding down during Game One of the opening round playoff series between the Detroit Red Wings and the Nashville Predators, Shea Weber had two things on his mind. The first was to kill the final five seconds off the clock and ensure that his team earned the important opening game victory. The second was to kill the head of Red Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg.
He would successfully accomplish both of those feats, although, he could end up paying a hefty price for the latter.
After taking a hit against the boards from the Wings’ forward, Weber retaliated by grabbing Henrik’s head with both hands and ramming it into the glass in the corner of the rink. Zetterberg appeared to be slow getting to his feet, but he was eventually able to skate off the ice under his own power. As for Weber, he was assessed a meaningless two-minute roughing penalty for his actions.
After the game Predators’ head coach Barry Trotz had the following to say about the incident:
“Zetterberg hit him in the head first. There wasn’t much there. I mean, I was watching the scrum right after that with [Todd] Bertuzzi and Gaustad and Bertuzzi comes in with a big-time, you know, haymaker, so I just think Zetterberg was tired at the end and he knew Webs was there and the game was over.”
There wasn’t much there? Zetterberg was tired? Is that how you explain your top defenseman grabbing an opposing player by the head with two hands and using him as a battering ram? Something tells me that Weber, Trotz and the rest of the Predators’ organization are going to need to come up with a better excuse than that if they hope to avoid the wrath of Brendan Shanahan’s iron fist.
Here is a another look at the hit.
