Ex-Leafs enforcer savagely roasts Darnell Nurse for damning insinuation that Ryan Reaves intended to hit

Ryan Reaves landed a vicious head hit on Darnell Nurse during the November 16 clash between the Oilers and Leafs. The hit resulted in Darnell Nurse's exit from the game after he begun bleeding profusely, having had his head rocked. Reaves was ejected from the game and handed a five-game suspension the following day by the NHL Department of Player Safety.

Nurse missed a total of three games before returning for the Oilers' home game against the Rangers on November 23. During his pre-game interview that day, Nurse made an damning insinuation that Reaves intented to "inflict pain" with his hit despite admitting Reaves apologized in person.

Nurse's damning comments against Reaves sparked a river of savage roasts from ex-Leafs enforcer Jay Rosehill. In a clip posted on The Leafs Nation YouTube channel on November 22nd, 2024, Rosehill blasted the Oilers D-man remarks as a "garbage take".

Rosehill opined Reaves was just playing hard, and making a physical play, which is a part of NHL. He added that Reaves intented to make contact with Nurse's shoulder, and said that the Leafs fans would have lauded their forward for that hit.

"He would have blown you up to Kingdom Come and stood over you saying, "choo choo, Darnell." Rosehill said

"But Darnell's wheeling the net like it's a Sunday beer league skate, forgetting he's in the NHL with the fourth line forechecking him, .."Rosehill added

Rosehill blasted Nurse for insinuating that Reaves is "some kind of psycopath" who intentionally looks to injure players. He quesitoned Nurse's play when Reaves struck him and took a swing at Nurse's seemingly inflated $74M million contract (signed in Aug, 2021) which carries a $9M AAV. Rosehill air quoted Nurse's AAV, and said:

"Use your head, Darnell. This '$9 million defenseman' wheeling the net like that. I think his pride is hurt, along with his black eye and everything else, and that's unfortunate."

Rosehill went on to label Darnell Nurse's commnent as "the stupidest thing" he had heard in a while.

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Ryan Reaves' brother claps back at Darnell Nurse; NHL analysts chime in with their opinions on the head hit

Ryan Reaves head hit on Darnell Nurse stirred up quite the controversy across the NHL and even extended to the CFL where Edmonton Elks lineman and Ryan Reaves' brother weighed in on his the hit on Nurse on social media.

In BarDown's Instagram post of Nurse insinuating Reaves intented to "infllict pain with it" , Jordan Reaves commented:

"You could tell that by looking at your skates"

and followed up with another comment:

"Keep ya head up around the net... rule #1 when you start hittin...wild"

NHL analysts Luke Gazdic and Jennifer Botterill gave their opinions on the Reaves hit. Before Ryan Reaves was slapped with the five-game suspension, Gazdic urged the league to "throw the book" at Reaves owing to his history with such hits.

His co-panelist on Hockey Night in Canada, Jennifer Botterill mirrored Gazdic's opinion, and said:

"When you do make contact to the head, there needs to be consequences..." Botterill said. "I also think there potentially should be further discipline against him."