I'm Very On Board With PK Subban Bringing The Falcon Punch To The NHL
There are very few athletes in professional sports who are a better showman than PK Subban. He’s one of those guys who whether you love him or hate him, you can’t deny that watching him play is worth the price of admission alone. Whether it’s with his skating or his puck handling abilities or moments like this. PK Subban knows what the people want to see day, and he delivers day in and day out. Think about it. In the NFL, you’re not even allowed to land on top of a guy anymore after tackling him. Might as well just throw some flags around their waist the way the NFL is trending. So PK Subban knows that there is a void right now in pro sports for violence. He understands that people want to see a physical game without every play ending up nullified because it was “just a wittle too violent”. So what does PK Subban go out there and do? He brings the Falcon Punch to the National Hockey League.
Now I know a lot of people out there are probably thinking to themselves right now, “uhhhh hey, PK. You can’t do that, bud”. But let’s be real with ourselves here. I think as far as hits go in the NHL, this isn’t one that anybody should have any actual issues with. I understand that punching a dude probably isn’t the best way to go about taking the body. But what other options did Subban really have here? Let’s just take a look at what PK Subban saw before making contact with Aho.
Aho has his back turned to PK and his head facing the boards. We’ve seen plenty of guys in this situation still end up taking the body here and it’s idiotic, it’s barbaric, it’s incredibly dangerous and it’s downright deplorable. If you’re PK Subban and you take the body straight up in this situation, you’re a piece of scum like Tom Wilson who has zero regard for anybody’s safety besides his own. You hit Sebastian Aho here straight up and you never know what could end up happening. I hate to be a worst case scenario kinda guy here but that’s how dudes end up getting paralyzed. You don’t need that in the game ever, especially not during preseason. So by wrapping himself around Aho’s body and punching him from the front? Well guess who doesn’t end up going head first into the boards.
He falls away from the boards and no real damage is done. And then if you look at the punch itself, PK Subban could have easily said fuck it and just rocked Aho in the dome with that right hook. But instead of delivering a fist to the face, Subban goes with a forearm to the shoulder. No contact was made with Aho’s head on the punch, because he was hit from the front that means that no contact was made with Aho’s head on the boards, and then no contact was made with Aho’s head on the ice. I understand that it may not look great to see a dude wind up and deliver a punch like that out of nowhere. But when you think about what the other options Subban had here in this situation and how much more dangerous they are than a forearm punch to the shoulder? You realize this was the safest move he could have made to separate Sebastian Aho from the puck, which is his job as a defenseman in the National Hockey League playing in his own. I’m sorry for being so right and ruining your “PK Subban is an asshole” narrative, but I guarantee you if that was somebody like Tom Wilson that Sebastian Aho would be on an injury report this morning.
P.S. – The guy just knows how to entertain.