Blackhawks Taunt David Backes After Hit To Head

By this point, every single one of us has seen the hit that Brent Seabrook laid on David Backes yesterday afternoon. The team hasn't released information on the captain yet, but post-game Ken Hitchcock said he was "not good." That's putting it lightly, considering he probably couldn't tell you his own name after the hit.

We all saw the NBC broadcast, or most of us did. Here's the hit from the CBC, and I want you to pay attention to the after-hit scrum. Listen closely (at about 45 seconds into the video).

You can clearly hear someone say "wakey wakey, Backey - wakey wakey!" while Backes is wobbling about. Who was it? Greg Wyshynski seems to think that it was Duncan Keith, which seems about right considering, as Wysh points out, Keith's mouth is moving.

So, you have a guy who is pretty obviously knocked for a loop and who can't stand up, and someone else laughing at him. I get post-hit scrums and fights have all sorts of delightful things said in them that aren't fit for broadcast. You can make fun of a player, his wife, bitch at him for going after a water bottle, all sorts of things that are not related to what one of your teammates did to hurt the player (on purpose or not).

I know the Blackhawks and the Blues hate each other. I'm not an idiot. You can still have a modicum of respect in the hatred. If a member of our team did the same thing to one of the Hawks, I'd be livid and mortified.

It's a stupid move by Keith, because it just serves to throw fuel on the fire and anger the Blues more. Yesterday the Blues channeled the anger into a win - tomorrow night, who knows. The Blues have a reputation for physicality, and I don't know if I would want to goad a team with Ryan Reaves, Steve Ott, and Maxim Lapierre into a pissing match.

The Blackhawks tend to lose their game when they try to play with a mean edge, though. So you know what? Goad away.