Nick Cousins was collecting the puck along the side boards in his own zone with 2:57 left in a 2-2 game at the Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday. Jakob Chychrun came down from the blue line.
The Washington Capitals defenseman is 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds, and he had a considerable size advantage on the Ottawa Senators forward. He caught him square. Cousins’ head bounced off the glass and he went down hard, lay motionless for a while, and needed help to get off the ice.
The reaction was immediate.
“This might be the most violent hit I’ve ever seen,” one fan wrote. “Hardest hockey hit you’ll ever see in your life,” said another. “Holy smokes, this may be the most vicious hockey hit ever?”
Paul Bissonnette managed three words. “Is Cousins dead?”
The hit at a glance:
| Time | Score | Penalty called | Cousins’ shifts after |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2:57 left, 3rd | 2-2 | None | 0 |
Was the Chychrun hit on Cousins legal?
The officials went back and forth on it. A five-minute major was initially assessed, then rescinded entirely after review, which left Chychrun with nothing at all.
Most neutral readings of the replay back that up. The contact was shoulder to chest, Chychrun stayed on his feet, and his elbow only rises on the follow-through, with Cousins’ head down in an unforgiving spot as he reached for the puck.
Ottawa’s head coach does not share that view.
“I’m a little surprised. You don’t usually see it where it goes from a major to no penalty, but I thought it was a headshot to a player that wasn’t ready for it,” Travis Green said. “They must have saw it differently.”
He was then asked how his forward was doing.
“He’s not doing great,” Green said.
Cousins was not taken to hospital. He is 33, had logged 12:12 across 19 shifts before the hit, and missed 12 games with a concussion in 2023-24, though he has no extensive history of head injuries beyond that.
Washington won it 3-2 in overtime through Cole Hutson, which nobody in Ottawa was talking about afterwards. The Senators host Colorado on Thursday with no word yet on whether Cousins will be available.
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