You'd think this would drive a good discussion on how players don't like punches to the head while they are playing hockey. Malkin really doesn't like it apparently. His immediate reaction was attack with a stick.
Maybe instead of letting the players take care of it (aka escalate it) on the ice, like Malkin did, roughing should get called before anything escalates. You see this poop all the time from EVERY player. They get beat or boxed out cleanly, and then they start viciously cross checking the back or throwing punches to the head. Then the victim turns around and throws a vicious retribution slash.
- eNDSo
I don't disagree with you.
However, in this specific instance, the stick retaliation happened so quickly that a penalty to Raffl would not have stopped the stick swinging. It wasn't premeditated, it was an emotional reaction to the Raffl punch, and, even if the ref was able to get the whistle to his mouth and blow it in the half-second that he had, Malkin was going to swing his stick. But I agree with your general point of view.
