This isn't a celebration of how Nazem Kadri reacted to the racist threats he received from Blues fans. This is just about his response on the ice, and we will get to some deadbrained hockey reaction to the more serious stuff in a second. Kadri was a target of the Blues in Game 4 on Monday night, though his collision with Jordan Binnington in Game 3 looked like an accident, no matter what Blues coach Craig Berube has to say about it. Kadri has lost his rag in the playoffs before, and cost his teams a lot of money, and surely part of Berube's ploy was to set the stage for another meltdown that could shift the series in the Blues' favor. The Blues were kicked into seven different kinds of shit most of the night, and it was the Blues who brought back their annual spring tradition of losing a critical playoff game. When the Blues won the whole thing, they seemed to have consigned their annual playoff self-immolation to the past, so it was nice to see it happen again. It used to be every April you could set your watch to a group of Blues players trying to settle scores in their own heads, instead of the big one hanging over center ice, and watch more talented and certainly more level. David Perron, you need to play some long lost hits.
For a decade and a half now, Perron has been the toughest player in the game when you're not looking at him or a linesman between him and the player he wants to cheapshot. Kadri was facing away from Perron and was on his knees. Kadri was able to deposit his second of the night and the fourth for the Avs after a two-minute long 5-on-3 advantage, as Perron and Buchnevich were scrambling back into the play after serving their penalties. It won't go down as a power-play goal, but certainly resulted from one.
Kadri scored his third goal in the 3rd to give the Avs a 6-3 win. Kadri was not inspired to go off the rails by Berube and the Blues, instead they inspired him to put his season in the grave and head back to Denver as they are.
Kadri scoring as a result of Perron trying to behead him from behind, watching Perron whiff on an even cheaper shot as he tried to elbow Kadri in the head after he scored is probably the most satisfying sight of the NHL season.
The overarching issues come into play here. Kadri was staring down and stuffing it down the throats of the fans who had threatened him and the police had to get involved after Game 3. Somewhere, in that sea of middle fingers, there was at least one culprit. Watching morons with sewer runoff for brains is better than nothing.
Even after 218 years on the job, and being on the wrong side of enough already, the voice of hockey in Canada still remains, even though it has been a long time. The first thing will be interesting. For example
Kadri has been through a lot more than the group that has been racist and threatening, and the Blues actions of inciting their fans by trying to exact some sort of revenge for nothing. It's still Kadri's fault to MacLean.
Hockey chooses its heroes and villains. Kadri has earned a fair amount of ire for his on-ice actions, and I've called him to the mat for them as much as anyone else. He did nothing except get knocked into a goalie, and yet a national studio host wants to put him on blast for staring down the idiocy.
One night after the studio crew gushed over Evander Kane's hat trick, they watched this game. It was labeled with the usualbaggage from analysts who don't have the capacity to deal with all the things Kane is accused of. The hockey world will always forgive you if you can score, so Kane hasn't taken responsibility for any of it.
Kadri has never been accused or done anything like that away from the rink, and yet look who gets let off easy because he scored some goals instead of being part of a normal collision on the ice or decided he wasn't going to take racism lying down. Couldn't really be an illustration of how far hockey has to go.
Kadri rose above it all and put his foot down, no matter who was saying it. You take your wins where you can.
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