Zack Kassian Makes Stanley Cup Playoff History, Becomes The First Player To Get A Penalty For Ripping Off Someone's Helmet While Sitting In The Bench
Happy Gilmore was the first player to ever take his skate off and try to stab somebody with it. Zack Kassian is the first player to ever receive a penalty in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for ripping someone's helmet off from the bench. Or at least I'm just going to assume he is. I'm sure there is some research that could be conducted here to see if such a penalty has ever been assessed before, but it's a Friday morning and I don't really feel like doing that. So let's just all assume that Kassian is the first.
Which means that Zack Kassian has officially done something in the NHL that Wayne Gretzky has never accomplished before in his career. We're talking about the greatest hockey player of all time, a guy who carried the Edmonton Oilers organization to new heights, a guy who revolutionized the sport of hockey as we know it, and then there's Wayne Gretzky.
By the way, I love the audacity of Kassian looking at Byram here like "what the fuck is your problem, dude?" after he gave him a little jab.
Uhhhh I don't know, Zack, I could be wrong here but maybe it has something to do with the fact that you just tried to rip his head off. Seems slightly justified in my opinion. Apparently not for the stripes, though, since Byram also ended up getting a penalty here. Seems a little messed up to give a guy a penalty after getting manhandled like that but I guess the stripes were just looking to get the game over with at that point.
Sidenote: Cale Makar is so unbelievably sick. There are 344 active defensemen who have played at least 1 game in the NHL. About 343 of them get completely turned around the moment that McDavid hits the blueline here with a full head of steam. Not the MakDaddy.