Okay... couple of things. First, Mika is only a freshman, right?... Wow. Kid's going to be good when/if he plays again after his two year mission...
2nd: Both the elbow to the face and the eye poking looked like they were accidents. Kane's looked a heck of a lot worse, and after watching the replay, what choice did the refs really have. We can argue all we want about how Kane was anticipating the ball coming up and trying to strip it (but apparently thought Mika's face was the ball), but the reality is if you watch the replay, it looks like Kane is a freaking kung fu master taking Mika out. I truly believe it was a complete and unfortunate accident, and you can see Kane trying to pull his fingers back (curled back oddly) even as he does it, but he still freaking poked the guy in the face/eyes without even touching the ball. I can't argue much with the ejection. The replay looks terrible. On the other side, Mika's elbow did in fact look like a basketball move. I think the foul should have been wiped, but not sure if that's allowed or not. I didn't see any ill will/egregious elbows on Mika's part in this case either, just a result of a lot of normal contact, so agreed with the call after the review (other than the foul shot...). At the end of the day, the two incidents don't relate at all IMO just because the video looks so different. I'm 100% on board with Kane's inadvertent eye rake, but still, out of context, and not knowing Kane beyond his previous rep, it looks a lot worse... I'm hoping Kane sends an apology/get well of some sort, despite it being the accident it was.
As for Ejim, c'mon buddy... Too much. I get it, you're frustrated... But you've gotta do better than/you're too smart for that. Paired with Kane's "eye raking" photo makes this team look bad... If I'm Hoiberg, I actually sit Ejim as punishment for the first half of the next game (though it could be argued that it doesn't really make a point given the next opponent). Kane's "rake" was an accident, but Ejim's incident was a poor decision, and uncharacteristic of him as a person. ISU needs to carry itself better than that... Leave the antics to CF and the Waxman (he needs a bigger jersey or something)... Keep winning, but don't forget to carry yourself as reps of ISU.
