Quote Originally Posted by LA Bluebird View Post
I've watched hundreds of hockey games in person and on TV, hopefully that allows me to qualify an opinion on this. It's definitely a very unnatural position, and to me it doesn't look like the contact he gets right before is enough to make his leg do that. It looks really bad and I honestly can't remember seeing anything looking anything like it in any game I've watched. And plenty of ex hockey pros on social media seem to share this opinion.

With that being said, do I believe that a hockey player is that reckless to consciously try to do that? I just can't see it... but I can understand how it meets the bar for at least a manslaughter investigation in this country given how far outside the scope of what normally happens in the sport it is. Usually when a player gets a bad skate cut, it's because he was unlucky to be down on the ice. A skate this high catching somebody, I think I've heard of it once but then it was a hard hit and the other player clearly going head over heels. It's just a really odd situation.
I've not watched as much as you, but got quite into it the last 7 years or so since a holiday in Toronto and caught the bug of the sport since watching them. I've read a fair amount of stuff from Canadian fans about this. None I've seen think that think this was deliberate in any way. The week after, many NHL players started wearing neck guards to protect against this type of injury. A Leafs player was seriously injured a couple of years ago after a random accident that slashed his leg open. That could also have been life ending, but thankfully wasn't. The speed ice hockey is played at,, with razor sharp blades on their feet, it's surprising more serious incidents don't occur.
No way did any hockey player go out to end someone like this. This is a sport where there's so many unwritten rules about fighting on the ice, 'etiquette' if you will.