Maxim Zamyatin These guys have a long history of friendship. Sometimes it happens that even the most ardent gentleman on the ice turns into an inveterate rude and bully. This happened with Wayne Gretzky, who was never distinguished by rudeness, but in the rarest episodes he could move the offender personally, and not through his “cops”. This is what happened today with Kirill Kaprizovwho literally “went off the coils” in an extremely difficult away match against Los Angeles. In the middle of the second period, Kaprizov fought at the boards with the famous Kings defender Drew Doughty, and responded to a small “poke” with a club in the chest with a powerful blow to the opponent’s face. For this, Kirill received a removal until the end of the game. The fact that the “Kings” are not very fond of Kaprizov. was clear last year. Then Doughty and his partners were not very flattering about Cyril in the press. In particular, to questions about what they think about the Russian, the same Doughty answered somewhat strangely. “Rookie of the year. Did he win the Calder Trophy? I just wanted to say that he was overpaid after 55 matches, ”said the two-time Olympic champion, whose contract is $ 2 million a year more than Kirill’s. However, there is an explanation for Kaprizov’s act. If you watch a longer version of the video with a blow, you can see that a few seconds before the Russian hit Doughty, he almost stuck Kirill into the side. When there was a fight for the puck, Kaprizov was with his back to the opponent and facing the board, and at that moment the elbow of the Kings player flew into his back. It was only by a lucky chance that the blow did not hit Kirill in the back of the head. “Kaprizov has never done anything wrong in his life!” Thomas Williams, the author of the Hockey Wilderness blog, was indignant. “Kaprizov was disappointed after playing with a high stick from Doughty. The arbitrators took the review for a large fine, ”commented The Athletic columnist Joe Smith“Minnesota head coach Dean Evason was very unhappy. His team may be forced to play tomorrow without Kaprizov, who may be issued a disqualification. Tomorrow the Wild will play Anaheim. But there are no specific penalties in the NHL rulebook for high-sticking. There is a minor penalty, a double minor penalty, or a suspension for the rest of the game if the opponent is injured. I will be very surprised if Kaprizov is suspended, but, again, a one-game suspension is automatically issued – this decision is being reviewed by the disciplinary committee, ”summed up another The Athletic journalist. Michael RussoIn a word, Kaprizov got into an unpleasant story, although the episode itself was hardly worth special attention.