"People don't want to watch and see kneeing hitting a guy's head into the
boards, ramming a guy from behind, and that is a common theme for a player in this league. I've never done this before but I have to do it because this is a trend with this player and he's done this a numerous amount of times; ramming the guys heading to the boards.
You know the the hit earlier in the year on Gudbranson [and this hit] was just last year. There's no place in the game for this and what's the common theme in all these? [Cousins] at the bottom of the pile in a turtle position. Not like
Brendan Smith standing up taking your medicine.
This has been a common theme for this player and listen I'm told he's a good guy. I'm told he's liked by his teammates and he's actually a pretty good hockey player, but somebody in that organization or somebody that he respects has to sit down and say 'enough of this, this doesn't help the Florida Panthers win, it doesn't make us a better team', or the NHL has to come down and hammer this guy [with a lengthy suspension]."