Rangers Head coach Peter Laviolette defends Jacob Trouba's brutal hit on Justin Barron

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Joshua Deeds
October 24, 2024 (6:45 PM)

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The New York Rangers' Jacob Trouba has once again found himself in controversy as he leveled the Montreal Canadiens' Justin Barron this week.

Tuesday night after the hit Barron was unable to return to the game, and the Rangers handily defeated the Canadiens 7-2.

Trouba hit Barron in the chest, and the young defenseman would hit the ice in pain and would head to the locker room afterward.

Martin St. Louis would provide his opinion and felt that Trouba was aiming for the head as the primary point of contact.

«When I saw the replay I found the principal point of contact was the head,» St. Louis said after the game.

But Peter Laviolette just didn't think so, as after Thursday's practice he'd defend the hit and the play.

«I think it was a single hit inside the game,» Laviolette said. «Trouba is a hard-nosed defenseman. I looked at the hit a bunch of times and I thought it was a good hit. I thought he took him right through the body. Nobody likes to see anybody get hurt. Hopefully it's not anything that's long term.»

After the hit Trouba never received supplementary discipline from the NHL, and it never set off alarms in New York or Toronto.

So, all-in-all it is unfortunate that Barron may have been injured after the hit but the NHL has decided that Trouba is allowed to level opposition players on the ice.

Montreal forward Brendan Gallagher also chimed in, saying the right thing for the NHL to do is to give Trouba more than a warning.

"They had a clean hit on the ice, we have a hit to the head from a player that's had multiple, multiple warnings," Gallagher said. "So, whether the league decides to do the right thing, whether he gets another pass, that's up to them.

It appears that the hit is polarizing, as Trouba himself is a personality that tend to do so in the NHL.

Despite the clamoring from Brendan Gallagher, and Martin St. Louis, the Canadiens will likely find a reason to retaliate in the future.

Will Matt Rempe have to square off with Josh Anderson in the future to solve this once and for all?