“Oh man! That’s a pretty good chop by Nurse after Hintz gives him a shove here. That’s a slash on top of the feet. Not a whole lot of padding there,” said the announcer as Roope Hintz collapsed on the ice. While you’d see NHL players recover from apparently harder hits without any help, Hintz couldn’t even put pressure on his foot after the Oilers’ Darnell Nurse slashed him in Game 2. What’s more? Hintz missed Game 3 entirely.

While the most skeptical Oilers fans alleged that the Dallas Stars player overplayed his injury, it turned out the hit was just as bad as it looked. Hintz had a chat with Stars Thoughts on Saturday, May 31, and confirmed just how bad things got for the top Dallas center to miss Game 3. “So, there was a fracture, or a crack, however you call it,” confirmed the 28-year-old.

“It was pretty painful. I tried to go in Game 3, but I couldn’t,” added the Finnish hockey star. The late confession on the severity of Roope Hintz’s injury drew a mixed bag of reactions now that Dallas’ chances and their season were over. “And they did absolutely nothing about it… Softest team in the NHL. FIRE PETE DEBOER,” commented one angry fan.

While that might sound quite harsh, fans have been calling out the Dallas Stars for this incident for a while. Many had already complained that Darnell Nurse getting a 2-minute minor for such a debilitating hit was unfair. Meanwhile, it didn’t sit right with the fans that none of the Stars players stood up for the intentional hit, especially when it happened a second time.

Yes, you read that right! It happened a second time during Game 4. This time, it was another Edmonton Oilers star defenseman, Evan Bouchard. Roope Hintz returned to action in Game 4 after sitting out Game 3 thanks to the pain. Yet, Bouchard nearly triggered that pain again when he clipped the Finnish hockey star with his stick. “There’s Bouchard going in right on the same spot!” said the announcer.

Despite the second cheeky hit on Hintz, neither the forward nor any of his teammates responded to Bouchard. “Is anyone on this team gonna stick up for each other & send a message..?!” one fan had said after the 28-year-old got slashed on his return. So it’s not surprising to see why fans continue to be angry with the team and coach. However, anger wasn’t the only reaction from the fans.

Roope Hintz’s confession sparked a plethora of emotions

Some fans continued to blame the coach, Peter DeBoer, for not doing enough to protest Darnell Nurse’s light punishment. Although the coach did express his anger post-game. “I’ll answer your question with a question: Does anyone in this room think if Connor McDavid gets carried off the ice like that, that it’s not a 5-minute major?” DeBoer said when asked about the slash.

But that didn’t cut it for the fans, especially because DeBoer didn’t say anything when Bouchard also slashed Roope Hintz. “Even a bigger deal is that Pete DeBoer didn’t stand up for his players,” commented another fan. Then there were the fans who did look past the emotions. “Sadly, part of winning is eliminating opponents’ players with dirty play so you can defeat them,” commented one fan.

“Bennett took out Stolarz … Nurse took out Hintz. A long list this season,” added the fan. And the hockey fan wasn’t wrong. Barely a day after Bouchard took his shot at Roope Hintz, Carolina Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov was slashing and tripping up Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad. The big difference here was that first Gustav Forsling and then Ekblad himself immediately retaliated.

Talking about Ekblad, the Cats’ defenseman is himself guilty of intentionally taking out Brandon Hagel during this year’s playoffs. In fact, Ekblad earned a two-game suspension for intentionally elbowing the Tampa Bay Lightning player when the puck wasn’t even in their vicinity. These are just some of the multiple egregious hits that fans of nearly every team that made the playoffs would tell you.

Meanwhile, some fans even praised Roope Hintz for his resilience. A fracture is no minor injury, and yet all it took Hintz was a single game’s rest to get back into action. The Evan Bouchard hit didn’t even seem to phase him, as the Stars forward brushed it off on his way to the bench. And that’s why some fans were amazed by Hintz’s attempt to stop Connor McDavid.

“This makes his attempt to catch McDavid’s breakaway even more impressive,” commented the fan. With the 28-year-old’s most recent confession in context, his nearly catching up with Connor McDavid when he scored the Oilers’ 4th goal in the second period of Game 5 now seems nearly supernatural. McDavid is known for his explosive speed, and many Oilers fans would even agree that he’s the fastest NHL player on the ice.

So, Hintz is nearly keeping up with McDavid with a recently fractured foot impressed many. And then there were the Oilers fans who didn’t really care for Roope Hintz’s confession. “Crickets on the Hyman injury… Typical… Tit-for-tat,” commented a netizen. The Oilers fan thought it wasn’t such a big deal because the Dallas Stars didn’t leave the Oilers unscathed.

Zach Hyman, who set the tone for the Oilers’ defense with over 100 hits, bowed out in Game 4. The Stars’ Mason Marchment hit Hyman’s hand at an awkward angle, and he immediately left the ice, visibly in pain. What’s worse? Hyman needed surgery and probably won’t play in the Stanley Cup final.