Jamie Benn struck again in Game 3 in St. Paul, Minn., and this time Matt Boldy had to be helped to the bench after taking the hit. Boldy was face down on the ice for a bit after the cross-check, and Wild coach John Hynes called Gord Dwyer and Pierre Lambert over after the play.
Boldy later showed the officials a video of the cross-check he received from Benn before going down the tunnel. He did not return for the rest of the period, though he came back for the second and third periods and said he is fine.
The hit fit a pattern that has been building through the series. In Game 1, Benn took runs at Quinn Hughes and Kirill Kaprizov on multiple occasions. In Game 2, he slew-footed Boldy in the neutral zone and the play went uncalled, even as Marcus Foligno was assessed a four-minute penalty for an incident involving Thomas Harley. Through three games, Benn had yet to be penalized for similar situations.
That is the tension in this series: one player, 36 years old, with one goal in his last 21 playoff games, keeps getting involved in plays that push the edge, and nothing has yet changed his standing in the game or in the series. Wyatt Johnston also speared Kaprizov in Game 3, adding to the physical tone around Dallas and Minnesota.
The NHL has to step in if it does not want this type of play to set a standard in the playoffs. The article says the league Department of Player Safety had not done anything so far, even as the Wild were already without Mats Zuccarello and Yakov Trenin in Game 3. Benn’s role in the series is no longer subtle, and the officials are now being asked to decide how far that can go before the standard is set for everyone else.