A scary incident happened early on during the Colorado Avalanche’s visit to the Montreal Canadiens in Bell Centre. Defenseman Nikita Zadorov checked forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi into the boards, and the center had to be helped off the ice.
Those are the clear-cut facts. The unknown is whether Zadorov is guilty of slew-footing Kotkaniemi, which would be the reason the forward fell so awkwardly.
Slew-footing is a little-called penalty in hockey. Here’s how the official NHL rule book describes the infraction:
“Slew-footing is the act of a player using his leg or foot to knock or kick an opponent’s feet from under him, or pushes an opponent’s upper body backward with an arm or elbow, and at the same time with a forward motion of his leg, knocks or kicks the opponent’s feet from under him, causing him to fall to violently to the ice.