Don Cherry shares his controversial take on the Reaves/Nurse incident.

There weren’t, and still aren’t, many people making an effort to defend Toronto Maple Leafs forward Ryan Reaves’ vicious hit on Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse over the weekend, but not everyone is willing to make one. One hundred percent of the blame rests with the man who took the shot.

Since Reaves received a major suspension from the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety, several commentators have come out to say that Nurse also needs to do a better job of being aware of his surroundings and protecting himself better. . One such commentator is veteran NHL analyst Don Cherry; Don Cherry suggested in his latest podcast that during the era of NHL hockey, any player who got back to the goal like Nurse did would equalize with a big shot.

“You know this is a funny thing,” Cherry began. newest podcast. “Nobody ever comes in with their head down like that, because the wingers leave and as soon as they see you doing it, they’ll catch you next time.”

Although Cherry’s podcast was released after Reaves was suspended on Sunday, it was recorded Sunday morning and Cherry accurately predicted how many games Reaves would receive for his infraction.

When asked about the suspended sentence, Cherry said, “He’ll get a 5.”

Cherry is more of an old-school hockey player, of course, but he wasn’t alone in his way of thinking. Immediately following the hit, former NHL player Paul Bissonnette also criticized how Nurse turned from behind the goal and continued to defend his stance on social media throughout the weekend.

“It’s a tough situation for Reavo,” Bissonnette said on Hockey Night in Canada. “It looked like (Nurse) was still facing the corner where you expected him to come around the net, and maybe he could have hit it forward, off the top, and (Nurse) never rounded his shoulder, so he just went with his head sensitive.

“Too bad he pushed it right on the button,” Bissonnette added.

Following his appearance at Hockey Night in Canada, Bissonnette released a 3-minute-long statement about the hit, in which he once again staunchly argued that Reaves had no ill intent in the play and was instead the victim of unfortunate circumstances. You can check out this explanation in the short clip below:

Topher Scott of the Hockey Think Tank also felt that there should have been more emphasis on Nurse’s failure to properly defend himself by keeping his eyes on the puck behind the net, arguing that this led to a poor game. An example of young hockey players who need to be made aware that they need to protect themselves at all times.

“Let’s not just tell one side of the story,” Scott argued. “We all want to make the game safer, but it would be counterproductive to say that the responsibility is solely on the player to hit. We need to teach how to hit, and we need to teach how to hit and how to protect ourselves by playing with our eyes up and scanning.”

You can read the full transcript below:

Do Cherry, Bissonnette and Scott make any sense here? Or do you think all three of them went out to lunch this time? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

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