Mikko Rantanen's gesture proves he didn't mean to injure Romanov

Hockey is one of the most dangerous sports next to football. You've seen all the tough hits that result in nasty injuries, especially in college football when it comes to targeting. It also happens in hockey with checks up against the boards. All it takes is a player standing up straight, not moving, to be run over by a player going 20 miles an hour. Concussions do happen in hockey and football; it's just the nature of the sport, and it comes with the price of playing the sport for some players.

After Tuesday night's game against the New York Islanders, fans across the league were coming for Mikko Rantanen's head after he collided with Alexander Romanov along the boards. Rantanen was given a major for boarding and ejected from the game. People online were calling for the Islanders to make Rantanen's quality of life worse when the Stars visit the Islanders later in the season. What kind of sick person would want to see a good hockey player have his quality of life worsened for something that was out of his control?

Rantanen said after practice yesterday that he reached out to Romanov, saying that he didn't mean to injure him and hasn't heard back from him yet. That is the kind of sportsmanship that needs to be highlighted across the league. Mikko went out of his way to make sure that Romanov was okay and apologized for the collision. That gesture is something that proves that Jim Nill makes sure he brings in the right kind of players into the Stars' organization.

I can tell you that Rantanen is not the dirty player that people are making him out to be online. He doesn't have a history of intentionally injuring players, and even Dallas Stars Head Coach Glen Gulutzan said that yesterday. He said that during the years going up against Rantanen and the Colorado Avalanche, he was not targeting any of his players or trying to put them on IR. That says a lot when your head coach has your back for something that was out of your control.

Let's look back at what happened on Tuesday night. Rantanen was going after Romanov and the puck in the Islanders' zone. As Rantanen is closing in on the puck, Scott Mayfield gets tangled up with Rantanen and they clip skates. Any former hockey player knows that having their skates clipped at full speed is dangerous. You basically lose all control and go flying forward. It looks like Rantanen was trying to regain balance before going right into Romanov. There's nothing dirty about what Rantanen did there.

In conclusion, Rantanen is not a dirty hockey player who has a list of players he wants to injure. Sometimes, losing control after getting your skate clipped by an opponent happens, and unfortunately, it happened to Rantanen. I hope that Romanov has a speedy recovery. I know he just recovered from a shoulder injury on the shoulder that went into the boards. Hockey is a dangerous game, and sometimes a little physics can cause a massive injury.