With just over five minutes left in the third period, Carolina’s Warren Foegele gave a shove to TJ Oshie right on the numbers and sent the Washington player into the boards while he was chasing after the puck. Oshie remained down on the ice for an extended period of time in pain, but was able to leave under his own power. The replay showed that Oshie’s injury came as a result of falling awkwardly after he was shoved—it also showed that the official closest to the incident did not raise his arm until he saw Oshie down on the ice.
Given that the shove looked pretty damn intentional, and it was the direct cause of an injury, it definitely looked like the Carolina player would get hit with a five-minute major penalty. Instead, the officials collectively decided that there wasn’t enough intent to harm Oshie in Foegele’s hit, and only assessed a two-minute minor penalty for boarding. With only two minutes to kill, and one of Washington’s best offensive threats hurt, the Hurricanes were able to hold onto their 2-1 lead to take Game 4 at home.
Unsurprisingly, Caps coach Todd Reirden was unhappy with the result and the call the officials made on Foegele’s hit. He announced after the game that Oshie “won’t be playing anytime soon.”
It sucks that the NHL will likely respond to this kind of spineless move with a slap on the wrist, and that one of the best players in this series is out for the foreseeable future. But hey, at least the refs didn’t allow an overzealous whistle to interfere with the flow of the game. That would’ve been a real travesty.