I had made a note for myself during the Sens' loss to the Sabres on Thursday and I finally got around to following up on it yesterday. During his first shift against Buffalo, Matt Duchene was on the receiving end of a pretty big, open ice hit from Justin Falk but the Sens' top centre bounced right back up and quickly sprung Ryan Dzingel in on a partial breakaway for the game's first good scoring chance.
Normally a big hit, clean or otherwise, on a player of Duchene's calibre could draw a crowd and gloves have been known to hit the ice whether it's merited or not but in this scenario, Duchene's promptness to rejoin the play seemed to diffuse the situation and may have actually caught the Sabres off guard a little.
"I think there are certain times when it's malicious and they try to hurt someone but that was a hockey play," said Duchene of the check. "I saw Hoffman open on a potential breakaway and I knew I was going to have to take the hit but if there wasn't anything there I would've just chipped it in and taken the hit on my shoulder and not have gotten blown up there."
"Different plays warrant different reactions," Duchene continued. "I don't mind getting hit, it's part of the game but I almost don't like it when guys fight for me if I get hit hard. Sometimes it's necessary if the guy is trying to send a message and hurt you but with plays like that, it's part of the game."
Duchene admitted that it can be difficult to judge a hit's "cleanliness" in the heat of a game and noted that every situation surrounding it could be different.
"It's a balance. It can't be all the time and it can't be none of the time," he said about guys sticking up for their teammates following a hit. "You have to feel the temperature of it on the ice and I'm not usually the guy jumping in there (laughs) so you'd have to ask those guys."
