It happened in a split second, so fast that the live cam following the action couldn’t even catch the hit live. It was only after the announcer drew attention to what happened in front of the Edmonton Oilers’ net that the live view switched to find Dallas Stars’ alternate captain Roope Hintz down on the ice. “They’re gonna stop the play, and Nurse is going off,” said the announcer as one of the officials escorted defenseman Darnell Nurse off the ice, while others rushed to attend to Hintz. So what happened?

The replay showed that Hintz took his position in front of the Oilers’ net before the defense cleared the puck. However, while leaving the position, Hintz landed a glancing hit on Nurse’s back, who nearly sandwiched the forward between him and Stuart Skinner. And just as Hintz skated away to join the rest of the field, Nurse responded with a slicing blow to the shins of the Finnish NHL star. Hintz immediately went down and didn’t get up.

In fact, the Dallas Stars forward couldn’t even skate off the ice on his own. “Roope Hintz had to be helped off the ice after taking a slash from Darnell Nurse,” Sportsnet wrote while posting the clip of the hit. “Nurse received a two-minute minor for slashing on the play,” they added. The hit came barely two minutes into the third period, when the Oilers already had a three-goal lead.

While the Stars couldn’t narrow the gap to a two-goal lead like they did in Game 1, they were hopeful going into the third period. After all, the Western Conference team had scored five goals in the third period of their May 22 clash. So they were hopeful and showed urgency early on. Unfortunately, the Hintz incident ultimately hurt the Stars’ game plan.

“Getting some help. Not putting any weight on that right foot as he comes off the ice,” the announcer said as two of Hintz’s Dallas Stars mates flanked the 28-year-old all the way to the tunnel. This marked Hintz’s second injury during a game against the Edmonton Oilers in a span of months. On March 8, he took a puck to the face as he tried to deflect a shot by Adam Henrique midway through the second period. He lay on the ice in pain for a while as the medical staff assessed him and ultimately helped him back to the dressing room. DeBoer later revealed that he was taken to a local hospital after the game.

Coming back to the present, however, while Darnell Nurse did get a two-minute penalty for the slash, the Stars couldn’t capitalize on the power play. However, they were quite vocal about their disappointment after the game.

The Dallas Stars didn’t like the NHL’s response

While we don’t have any updates on the severity of Hitnz’s injury, the way the NHL player went off the ice didn’t look good. The Dallas Stars also thought that Darnell got off easy. No one in the Dallas camp liked it when the officials let the Oilers defenseman off with a 2-minute minor. When the media questioned coach Peter DeBoer about his reaction to the hit, the head coach asked his own question.

“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?” asked the coach. “That’s my answer to your question,” he added. Stars’ captain Jamie Benn, who was fined for punching the Winnipeg Jets’ Mark Scheifele in Round 2, also had a similar response.

The hockey forward was not pleased with the official decision either. “I don’t really want to tell them what they should do or what they should have called, but that’s one of our best players, and I don’t think it was enough,” explained the 29-year-old. So it’s safe to say that most of the Stars wanted the NHL to give Nurse at least a major penalty for his hit. But what does the rule book say?

The NHL rule 61.3 deals with slashing hits. It says slashing can be “a major penalty, at the discretion of the referee, based on the severity of the contact.” The rule also makes one thing clear. “A major penalty must be assessed under this rule” if the player suffers an injury. Maybe that’s why the Dallas Stars are angry at the NHL for not handing the Oilers defenseman a 5-minute major. Yet, what do you think? Tell us in the comments.