Carolina's Warren Foegele shoved Oshie from behind, sending him into the boards in an awkward fashion. Foegele received a two-minute minor for boarding, a penance the Caps deemed to be light. Caps captain Alex Ovechkin and coach Todd Reirden both believed the hit should have resulted in a five-minute major.
"I don't want to comment on this," Ovechkin began, "but we try to avoid that. We have all those [off-season] meetings - [general managers] make meetings [with] referees, watch videos - and it's two minutes. We're players, we have to go out there and play, but those guys have to make a decision. They can't be afraid. If the guy is hurt, it's a dirty play and it has to be not two minutes, it has to be a different call."
You will occasionally see a major whistled on a play like that, but that's typically reserved for players whose reputations precede them, and Foegele is a rookie with no rap sheet. It wasn't a good hit by any means, but with five minutes left in the third period of a one-goal playoff game, no major was forthcoming.
"I just know that a defenseless player that is a distance from the boards - that can't protect himself - is in a vulnerable spot," says Reirden. "And as a result, we won't be having one of our key players for quite some time."