In the dock: Jeff Petry and Dylan Larkin
On Saturday night, Jake Allen had to leave the game in the second period when Dylan Larkin hit him head on. All fans remember the images of Jake Allen losing his helmet. He also lost his mind on this sequence, he left for a few moments following this collision to start the concussion protocol.
That said, this morning I replayed the sequence a few times to name the main culprit on this catch. If I put myself in his shoes for a moment, I sincerely believe that my journey would have been the same. How can the Wings captain sincerely avoid Allen in a split second?
With Petry's push while Larkin was cutting to the net, the collision could not be avoided, let's face it. Even if it had been his own goalie, as Marc-André Perreault pointed out, I remain convinced that it would have been just as impossible to avoid.
Following the meeting, Dominique Ducharme did not want to go into depth on this issue, but between the lines, we can perhaps understand that Larkin did not do everything to avoid it.
We're talking here, but a fox that just comes out of the woods, right in front of you while you're driving your car at 100 kilometers per hour, it's impossible not to hit him with 0.1 seconds to spare.
Whether you're a fan or not, in this case, let's be logical and analyze the replay with neutral eyes.
Here is the sequence again, where we clearly see Petry pushing Larkin:
