Erik Gudbranson vs J.P Labardo

Good for Gudbranson, that was a chicken $hit move by Labardo and he got what he deserved.

I don't know if a 4 stride check to the head of a 5 foot 8 dude and pounding his face in counts as "defending your team mate" or getting even. Gudbranson deserved the suspension he got and Labardo deserved his as well. But countering a dirty play with and even dirtier play is like saying Todd Bertuzzi had the right to beat Steve Moore into early retirement.

From Gudbranson's standpoint he thought Labardo ran his goalie... this was a direct result as a carry over from the previous match up when Emerson Clarke punched Grubauer out when they last played each other in Kingston. This was a total setup by Grubauer as he "sold" the "hit" to the refs. I was sitting behind the net 3 rows up and could clearly see Labardo did NOT hit Grubauer in the head nor did it appear he intended to even collide with him. You can see what the camera doesn't catch when someone intends to make contact and that wasn't the case here. Labardo simply doesn't have a history of "dirty" play. Grubauer's helmut came off as a result of him dramatically throwing his head in an attempt to sell the refs on the contact. In Gudbranson's defense he couldn't really see if contact was made or not because Labardo's body blocked his view and he probably based his reactions upon the "sell" job Grubauer did on the contact. After the play Grubauer was laughing and Hope called him on it while he was retreiving the scattered equipment and the linesman stepped in. Again, you couldn't hear the exchange in the stands but i'm sure the comments warranted the misconduct. I still don't get why Grubauer wasn't assessed a penalty for his actions afterwards though.....