Daniel Paille Says Hit Was Shoulder-To-Shoulder, Apparently Watched Different Video

There are some things in life that are just true. There are 50 states in America, ants never sleep (seriously, look it up), Rick DiPietro is made of glass. These are facts that aren’t up for debate.

Another one of these facts? Daniel Paille’s shoulder hit Raymond Sawada in the face on Thursday night. It earned him a four-game suspension. How can we prove this is fact? Well there is video of the incident, and that provides a pretty clear open-and-shut case. But if that doesn’t convince you, just look at Sawada’s injuries.

He broke his nose on the play. How does one break their nose if their nose isn’t broken by something? I’m sitting here typing right now. Should I worry about my nose breaking? No, of course not. You get the point.

Clearly, Paille does not. Here’s what he told the media today after learning of his suspension, via WEEI.

“It was a fast-paced play. I just recognized that Sawata was going on a breakaway, and I just went over to backcheck and get the puck, but he cut back to the middle,” Paille said following Bruins’ practice Friday. “If you look the play, I’m ahead of him when I hit him, and I felt that I hit his shoulder at that moment. Looking at the replay I felt that he kind of turned towards me so I wouldn’t my check. I felt that I hit him in the the shoulder at first.”

When asked about the comments of Andrew Ference, his teammate, who said that you can’t be hypocritical about hits like this, Paille said:

”I think that to who said it, if that’s what they see, that’s their opinion, but for me, I felt that it was a clean hit. It’s too bad, I know that most of the guys in the room would disagree with that. ... It’s understandable with how the issue is right now with those types of hits, but I know that a lot of the guys on the team here know me and understand me and agree with me.

“Just looking at the replay over and over I see the shoulder hitting the shoulder and then just kind of tagging along. I won’t focus too much on those guys and just get the support from everyone else.”

Yes, he blamed the culture. He blamed “how the issue is right now with those types of hits.” Why can’t we just admit it when we break a rule?