NHL Suspends Zac Rinaldo 8 Games For His Hit On Letang

Philadelphia's Zac Rinaldo has been suspended for eight games for charging and boarding Pittsburgh's Kris Letang.

— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) January 27, 2015

Here’s what I had to say about that Rinaldo hit the day after the Flyers – Penguins game last week. “The Rinaldo hit was dirty. Not like realllly dirty. But definitely a dirty hit. I’ve seen cleaner. And since he’s a repeat offender, I’m sure he’ll have a couple of games to sit out.”

I’m gonna go ahead and stand by that. Again, it was dirty hit that is very deserving of an 8-game suspension. There’s no way of getting around that. He left his feet and got Letang from behind. At first I wanted to give him the tiniest sliver of slack since the hit is obviously going to look much worse when it’s slowed down like that. When you’re playing the game at full speed and it’s a high-intensity game like any Flyers – Penguins game is, shit like this is going to happen. But then I remembered how pointless it would be to even consider defending Zac Rinaldo. He’s just a dumb kid who plays the game like an idiot, and when you play the game like an idiot you kinda deserve to lose $107,213.87* in fines and suspensions over your 4-year career. Here’s what he had to say after the hit.

Vine via Pete Blackburn

To be fair, this is a tough quote to be taken out of context from the rest of the interview. Do I think that Zac Rinaldo actually believes he changed the outcome of the whole game? Absolutely not. I’m sure he was just trying to be funny and edgy with the media since he realized he was about to get bent over by the league after that hit. But again, this just goes to prove what a dumb kid Rinaldo is. Just fucking say you’re sorry about how the hit turned out and that it wasn’t your intention to injure him. Simple as that. Instead, he comes off looking like more of a dickbag than the rest of the league already thinks he does.

By the way, I wouldn’t totally hate it if the NHL just suspended the entire team for 8 games. Broadcast some Voracek and Giroux highlights during game times instead of making me watch Ryan White attempt to skate out there. But yeah, moral of the story is Rinaldo deserves his 8-games and I wish that had a little more impact on the Flyers offensive production so they can fully embrace the #TankForMcDavid movement.

*s/t to @frank_seravalli for coming up with that amount.