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Final update - DPS suspended Larkin for roughing. Joseph is, as expected, not being held liable. The department assessed that Larkin “jumped in front of Joseph… to get a puck and therefore Joseph wasn’t held to the standard of supplemental discipline when he hit Larkin with a cross check from behind.
Update - the Captain was removed from the ice, was speculated that it was due to DPS. It turns out he is dealing with injury from Joseph hit from behind. Will be talking to Drs. Regardless of suspension results, Larkin looks to be headed to IR.
For some reason, I’m unable to link my past articles for right now. You can click on “archive… and see my post about last night’s game. First, and I tried to make this clear, Larkin’s retaliatory hit on Joseph was not a good decision. A punch to the face with the glove on (yes I’m aware McCarty did that to Lemieux, and it wasn’t good then either) is dangerous. It certainly warrants some sort of discipline.
On the other side, Joseph’s hit on Larkin (in my opinion) warranted more severe punishment than it received. Last year’s hit from Benn put Larkin in a neck brace and was ignored on the ice and by DPS. Joseph got a minor, I believe it should have been a major. My opinion on this doesn’t really matter, the league isn’t going to pursue it.
I’ll post the results of the hearing once I know them. More than anything, I hope Larkin didn’t sustain any further injury. Joseph was able to skate the rest of the game, Larkin was ejected so we don’t know how the hit affected him. I’m going to continue to get grief for feeling that Joseph should be getting a call as well. It’s frustrating to think that two players in Benn and Joseph could damage his neck and neither face anything severe.
I’m not going to go into “conspiracy… mode. I’m just focusing on this player. Larkin has to try and keep his cool regardless. I don’t have a lot of faith in the process sometimes, but it’s the process that we have. Hopefully, Larkin will be back on the ice soon and we can move past this.