So was the hit that hurt Bowns an innocent play or was it intentional ? At game speed it look like a hockey play where the Sheffield player( Sarich ) was going to the net hopefully to get his stick on the ice to receive a pass from his linemate who was one on one with Ritchie along the boards. Innocent enough, right ?? Not so fast . When you look at the replay from behind the net in slow motion, another story comes to light.
When the winger goes to the net, that winger either goes to the net with his stick on the ice hoping for a pass, a deflection or to get position on the defenceman in front of the net. But that's not what happened. You can clearly see that Sarich had no intention of doing what I mentioned above instead you can clearly see him set his eyes on Hotham with no intent on looking for a pass, taking a pass or to get position. From his body position he clearly was intent on hitting Hotham, no question about that. Did he intentionally try to hurt Bowns ? Not directly, but when you go to the net like he did, without the intent of receiving a pass, then you have clear intent of hurting either Bowns or Hotham.
Some would say that that play is a hockey play and that's not the case here. The slow motion replay from behind the net tells the story and its clear he didn't go to the net hoping for a goal, it was to take the defencemen out and if Bowns got in the way, then he could get 2 for the price of 1. So, on purpose or not ?