Surely
I don't know if you ever played but it called finishing your check.I tell my two sons who play D3 college hockey the same thing. It looked like the damage was done when Samela's head hit the ice. Hockey's a violent game dude. KEEP YOUR HEAD UP...
Carter's a class guy,not a headhunter...
Honestly.... why should it matter if I've played or not? That doesn't make me more or less qualified as a knowledgeable hockey fan.
I know hockey is a violent game, dude. Part of the reason I enjoy hockey so much is because of the big hits. I even enjoy a good scrap (if it's called for). I don't want the NHL to be turned into a non-contact league. I just want the players to actually give a sh*t about each other's lives.
Finishing checks is important. However, if you ask some of the players that used to play, they used to give warnings to the player they were about to hit (if it seemed like it was going to be dangerous), so that he would be ready for it. That wouldn't ruin the hit.... it would ensure that the player about to be hit wouldn't get injured badly. They used to have respect for each other.
Regardless if Carter is a class guy or not, he hit Samela harder than he needed too. He hit him with everything he had. It was perfectly obvious that Samela did not see Carter coming. In that case, Carter should have hit him, but he didn't need to put as much force into that hit.
The hit was technically clean, and I don't think that the league should suspend players based on the outcome of a hit. A clean hit that causes an injury is legal.
And yes, I do think that Samela should have had his head up as well. As soon as you put your head down, you get into trouble.
However, this is about respect.
If these guys don't respect each other, someone is going to get really badly hurt..... or killed.
If you don't have respect for the other players on the ice, then you don't have respect for the Game. That goes for both Carter and Samela.