The Dallas Stars took care of the Montreal Canadiens last night 6-2, but the story of the game could probably be boiled down to just one shift. Jamie Benn lit Canadiens defender Jeff Petry up with a clean hard shoulder to the chest and Tyler Seguin almost immediately scored to put the Stars up 4-1.
Petry would not return. Reports out today suggest he won’t play on Monday or Tuesday. There was initially some question on Twitter as to whether or not it was a good hit, but Twitter aficionado @myregularface recorded an alternate angle of the hit that shows it was about as clean as a hit that hard can be.
tried to isolate the Benn hit to clarify that it does not appear illegal pic.twitter.com/pKm9jB7kUu
— Stephanie (@myregularface) December 20, 2015
That shift isn’t what won the game. The Stars likely win that game regardless, but the shift was a honest reflection of what Jamie Benn is when he is at the top of his game. This is how you want the captain to play when he doesn’t have the puck. He’s creating chaos without committing penalties which opens up ridiculous amounts of space for Seguin.
The shift was an exclamation point on what was a great night of hockey as we wind down the 2015 season. In a season of good memories so far that shift is going to end up among the more memorable moments when the story of 2015-16 is written.