"He touched the moon": Marchessault discusses Pietrangelo's slash on Oilers' Draisaitl
Fans weren’t the only ones shocked to see the slash Vegas Golden Knights’ defenceman Alex Pietrangelo delivered on Leon Draisaitl in Game 4 of the second round.
In their series versus the Edmonton Oilers, Pietrangelo delivered an egregious two-handed chop to the arms of Leon Draisaitl and received a one-game suspension as a result. Appearing on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast this week, Jonathan Marchessault poked some fun at the 33-year-old defenceman for the uncharacteristic incident.
“His slash was as crazy as it can get,” Marchessault said. “He touched the moon and came down on Leon [Draisaitl].”
Despite the series being tied up at two apiece when it occurred, the Golden Knights were apparently still as loose as ever. Marchessault revealed that Phil Kessel joked with Pietrangelo immediately afterward.
“Phil was like ‘That was dirty, eh?'” Marchessault said. “It was just so funny to see. And yeah, he got a suspension for it and he owned up to it. Came back stronger the next game.”
While funny to look back on now, the Oilers were furious at the time despite picking up the win. Draisaitl himself said the slash he received doesn’t belong in the game.
“That’s a really, really dangerous slash,” Draisaitl said to reporters the following day. “I think those are things that have nothing to do with hockey or the game. You can seriously injure someone with a slash like that.”
Marchessault admitted that Pietrangelo can be a “little a**hole,” on the ice, though he argued back at the notion that the veteran blue liner is a dirty player. “He’s not crazy dirty. There’s more dirty guys out there that I’ve seen.”
The slash receiving just a one-game suspension was controversial, as many fans believed more was deserved. Making matters worse for Oilers fans was that Darnell Nurse also received a one-game suspension for an instigator penalty mere minutes after Pietrangelo’s ejection. While the Oilers were frustrated with the outcome, Marchessault and his teammates felt it was justified.
“Petro being suspended Game 5, we were lucky that Nurse got suspended at the same time because that was a rule that was written white on black,” Marchessault said. “You can’t go around it. A rule’s a rule.”
Despite the lapse in judgement from Pietrangelo, the Golden Knights secured wins in both Games 5 and 6 to allow them to advance to the Western Conference Final, and they never looked back, hoisting the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history.
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