he had plenty of time to pull back and not deliver the check once he saw pionk was in a vulnerable position basically horizontally on the ice. there was no way for him to deliver the check without making knee/leg contact somewhere on his upper body.

i did watch the hit and spezza braces for the hit the way you normally would while at speed and pionk was falling. the entire hit happened in less than a second and there was no way for spezza to process Pionk falling or even have time to think about jamming his knee into a moving target that wasnt even in his eye line.
He deserved 4 games, Connolly deserved 4 games, Pionk also deserved 4 games but since he only kneed a guy in the knee he got 2, despite hurting him the worst out of the known injuries

no he didnt. not even close. You know who had all the time in the world? Connolly. Spezza did not

Idk how anyone can conclude that since Pionk was already on the ice but no point in debating it since you won't see it otherwise, also Pionk didn't stick his knee out, he shouldn't of gotten a suspension at all.
Oh and I guess cause Pionks concussion was mild who cares then, wasn't so bad.

lol, the fact that you think Pionk didnt stick his knee out on sandin says all you need to say. Clearly you wont see anything otherwise.

no argument on connolly but if you watch the video, pionk was able to dive, receive and get rid of the puck before spezza made contact. these guys are fast and they have to think on their feet, even at full speed spezza still had time to move out of the way and not deliver that check. he commits to the check and leads with the knee after he sees pionk fall instead of trying to come to a stop.

I've watched it multiple times and he didn't, clearly you ignoring the fact Pionk was already on the ice when Spezza dropped his knee onto his head shows you're willing to ignore facts to suit your narrative.

i did watch the video, and the time between spezza zoning in on the hit and pionk going from vertical to horizontal is incredibly minimal. There is a distinct difference between wreckless and intent. Spezza was the former. Spezza did not have time to get out of the way, at most he could have let up a little, and he didnt lead with the knee, he lead with his shoulder, but that doesnt matter when the guy is on the ice.
If spezza does go into a full stop he still hits Pionk and this time it's with his legs fully leading and extended

ive watched it multiple times and you are clearly ignoring the fact that spezza was already in the process of bracing for the hit as Pionk was falling and that the knee and head meeting were incidental. You ignoring this clearly shows you're willing to ignore the facts to suit your narrative.

That wasn't close to a " clean hit" kero never touched the puck therefore ineligible to be hit

Pionk was already on the ice, tell yourself whatever you want i really don't care.

he doesn’t do anything to avoid hitting the defenseless player without the puck. spezza is still like a yard away from pionk when he dives down onto the ice. it doesn’t really matter if he led with his shoulder in this context because like you say, he was on the ground, he pushed his knee forward while making the hit (i feel like that’s not the right terminology for it but you get the motion i’m describing). i don’t think he went into that play like “i’m going to knee pionk in the head” but that was pretty clearly going to be the outcome and he did absolutely nothing to prevent that from happening and actively leaned into it.

You're right. I watched it again (sober) and it wasn't clean but it was a 2 minute penalty. He only got suspended because kerro got hurt. If kerro gets up there's no suspension. But to suspend him 4 games is absurd.

Spezza didn't lead with the knee BHAHAHAHA THATS PURE BULLS*"*. The Connelly hit was dirty ,but to argue the Spezza hit wasn't is completely delusional

5 minute interference but 4 is a little excessive

If you honestly think Spezza wasn't trying to knee Pionk in the head I don't know what to say to you. He was looking at Pionk from a mile away. It's about as obvoius an example of intent to injure as they come.

By the way, Spezza's one of my favourite players, and I appreciate he had the guts to stand up to Pionk to protect Sandin, but it absolutely was intentional, and he deserved to be suspended for 4 games.

Did u just say that Connoly hit was clean??? Holy Shxt Hawks fans are actually brain dead

All of Trouba's "big" hits this year have been 100% clean and legal. Elbows and arms down, shoulder to the chest. It's called a good clean hit and I would bet any amount of money that Jujhar would agree with that. It's very unfortunate he was injured, but that's the risk you take playing a contact sport. Stop crying about legal hits.

Connely deserved his suspension. Spezza deserved his suspension. Trouba deserved to get one and didn't.