BUFFALO, N.Y. -- OK, let's get the fuss and formalities out of the way: Marc-Andre Fleury was wonderful, especially with his six saves in overtime, and Sidney Crosby had scored his 12th goal to tie, but the Penguins fell short of the Sabres, 2-1 by shootout, Saturday night at KeyBank Center.
More on that in my game analysis.
But I first and foremost feel compelled to ask, on a bigger scale: Why would a hockey player launch his own face into the boards?
Oh, yeah. This really happened, near the end of the second period:
https://vimeo.com/192301818
If I didn't witness it with my own eyes, directly in front of my corner position in the press box, I wouldn't have believed it.
But it did.
That up there is Buffalo's Marcus Foligno. He's 25 years old. And if he keeps doing stupid stuff like that to himself, he isn't likely to see 26.
Let's break it down:
• Brian Dumoulin is guilty, but of exactly one thing: His stick is riding Foligno's lower back as both move toward the end boards in the Pittsburgh zone, and he finishes that with a shove. He'd be assessed a cross-checking minor, which was incorrect, but it did merit a boarding minor.
Still, as Dumoulin would tell me in a one-on-one interview afterward, "That's a play that happens all the time all over the rink."
It is. He could have handled it slightly better. But just slightly.
• "I'm not exactly the most physical guy there is," Dumoulin continued with a small laugh.
Indeed, he's got zero history of supplemental discipline and, in general, has 30 whole penalty minutes in 111 NHL games. So any notion that he'd suddenly manufactured some malicious streak in the context of one of the least emotional games played on this continent, maybe in any sport ... doesn't exactly fly.
• This part is obviously the most subjective, but watch the video again to see Foligno clearly — and I mean clearly — launching himself into the boards.
This isn't unheard of, but I can honestly say I'd never seen anyone take it this far. Foligno's face genuinely finds the glass with great authority, after which he spills to the ice and stays there for nearly two minutes.
Again, everyone will have their own judgment on this. Mine, from the direct side view in seeing it live and then again in seeing the replay, was that he launched. And that was hardly an isolated stance, as I'd heard from several Penguins that Mike Sullivan was positively livid on the bench that any call at all was made. He had plenty of company there, too.
Dumoulin confessed he was choosing his words carefully as he was speaking to me, but he did go this far when I asked, point-blank, if Foligno launched himself: "I mean, I'd just never throw a guy like that, especially when he knows I'm there. It's not like I just came out of the blue. I was with him the whole time."
OK, but did he launch or not?
I showed Dumoulin the video on my phone. He hadn't previously seen it.
"Oh, boy."
Right.
• Foligno, who sought help off the ice after those two minutes prone, said afterward he had to be put through the NHL's concussion protocol. He returned in the third period and played with zero apparent issues.
"It's good that he was able to come back and play," Dumoulin said. "He looked fine out there."
He sure did.
• Here was Foligno on the incident:
After the game Marcus Foligno was asked about the hit by Dumoulin late in the second period #Sabres #Pens pic.twitter.com/1FIPrhS7Uo
— Matthew Bové (@Matt_Bove) November 20, 2016
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