"It wasn't very smart": Pietrangelo says he regrets slash on Oilers' Draisaitl
The Edmonton Oilers might be nearly a month removed from their last game of the season, but it’s hard not to revisit how their year ended.
Despite being underdogs on paper against the Vegas Golden Knights in their second-round series, there was a sense that perhaps this was the year the Oilers were destined to go on a run to the Stanley Cup Final.
Of course, that didn’t happen, with Vegas now in their second appearance in the Stanley Cup Final in just six seasons.
One of the series’ most talked about moments was Golden Knights defenceman Alex Pietrangelo’s slash on the arms of Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl in the closing moments of a Game 4 win for Edmonton. With the Oilers up 4-1 in the final two minutes of the third period, Pietrangelo attacked Draisaitl with his stick before chasing down Connor McDavid in an on-ice free-for-all.
Pietrangelo recently commented on the slash and appeared to show some remorse for his actions.
Pietrangelo, who was suspended one game for the incident, spoke to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek prior to Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals about the slash.
“Look, did I make a mistake? Yeah, I did. And I paid for it,” Pietrangelo told the 32 Thoughts podcast. “I had to sit in that room and watch the game, go ask Phil Kessel, it was hard to watch with me cause I was pacing the room back and forth.”
Of course, it’s easier to come clean when your team is the victor of the series, but it’s sensible that Pietrangelo realizes it probably wasn’t his best day at work. The Golden Knights won Game 5 by a 4-3 score before closing out the series the following game with a 5-2 victory.
In the post-series handshake line following Vegas’ Game 6 win, Pietrangelo and Draisaitl shared a moment caught on camera, although it seemed to be a rather quick exchange of words.
“I just wanted to apologize,” Pietrangelo said about the handshake line. “It wasn’t very smart on my end, emotions got the best of me. I think it takes a big person to apologize, right, it’s not an easy thing to do to admit your mistake and thankfully the guys did the job for me.”
Based on the NHL’s divisional playoff format, there’s a high likelihood that these two rivals link up in the playoffs again in the near future. Keep your eyes out — and arms in — for the next chapter of this suddenly bubbly rivalry.
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