Jason Smith - Adam Johnson's Death Wasn't an Accident, It's a Dirty Play that Got Out of Hand 

The fact the league hasn't suspended him is ridiculous. Was blatantly deliberate kick. Whether he intended bodily harm is irrelevant. It was a dangerous play.

"I coached Matt for a very short stint. I wanted to get rid of him immediately ... He has no respect for himself or his opponents. He used to get into a bit of a mess. He is a very dirty player." - former assistant coach of Petgrave

The very first thing coaches tell their young 7 year old, or younger, players, in the USA and Canada, is to keep your skates on the ice. Period. Those skates are as sharp as a razor.

0% accidental, 100% intentional. Standing ovation is disgusting.

I’m just a casual fan and even I could see that wasn’t a freak accident it was intentional

I'm a panthers fan,I wasn't at the game in Sheffield thank god and I have not watched the video for obvious reasons but there does seem to be a shift in opinion away from a "freak accident" this has obviously been confirmed by the arrest. He has since been released on police bail.I realise the Sheffield fans wanted to show their support for their player but I was very surprised that he was even in the building to get a standing ovation in the first place,considering this is an ongoing investigation I think it would have been prudent to have kept him out of the limelight .

Hockey has been part of my life since I was a little kid and I went into viewing that not having any idea what had happened other than Adams passing. The second I saw it I turned to my wife and said”He did that on purpose!” I watched it again and 100% felt the same that was done with purpose. I have assumed from day 1 that he didnt try to kill him but that is of little consequence he killed him with wreckless abandon. He did it to keep him from possibly scoring. Ive never seen that in 40 plus years. Only time Ive seen legs that high is someone getting flipped on purpose. That was nothing like that.

Petgrave wasn’t loosing his Balance! I want to make that Crystal Clear! He Must Pay Consequences to the Full Extent!

Petgrave didn’t actually play the other night he was watching the game in the stands. I can’t believe he’s getting so much support and if you comment that you think he was to blame your apparently being a racist because Petgrave is black. I’ve said all along and I’m in the minority over in the UK that there was reckless intent from Petgrave that caused Adam Johnson to lose is life. I’ve watched the video over Probably 500 times and I can’t see how anyone can say that Petgrave got clipped to make his skate go up high. HIs skate is already going sideways towards Adam Johnson before he get anywhere near the other Panthers player and if you watch very closely there is actually 2 times that he makes contact with his skate first in the chin neck area then he stabs his skate back that hits him in the ear and neck. Petgrave obviously didn’t mean to kill Johnson but there’s reckless intent to stop him that went horribly wrong.

He definitely needs to go to prison for sure.

It was manslaughter at the very minimum. Borderline murder

There is a karate move called a "flying double side kick." You can easily find videos on this move. One You Tube video is called Boyka's flying double side kick. . In a clear video of the Petgrave/Johnson contact, you can see Petgrave make this flying double side kick move. Petgrave did not only have one leg up high in the air, as appears in the blurry videos. He had BOTH of his legs/skates in the air. In a double flying side kick, you hit the target twice, one higher, one lower. This is what Petgrave did. I believe his Internet search history can prove he was practicing this liiegal move. I may be wrong. But if I am correct, it can be proven.

English Hockey for you :) any seasoned hockey player will tell you it was intentional, it was dirty, it was not hockey at all

Wasn’t the first time this player used this dirty reckless tactic!

I know very little about hockey but even as a 40 year old mother with zero interest in it i knew he shouldnt have lifted his boots like that. If what he did was so normal and right then someone would be getting there throat cut every week in the sport. The standing ovation is a disgrace. He may not have intentionally wanted to kill him but if someone dies as a result of your negligent behaviour, that is manslaughter.

I have played and refereed the game for 50 years and he intentionally tried to use his leg in a high kick to make contact with Johnson coming across the zone and as a result of this incredibly dirty play ended a life for a game! It's extremely difficult to not see this as manslaughter.

No player accidentally kicks a skate that high. This ain’t figure skating and they are professionals. This wasn’t an accident. He probably mean to catch the guys arm or something

I thought it had to be accidental until I saw the entire play, I know it wasn’t intent to kill but he certainly was trying to clean him off his feet with the iron lotus

That standing O- IS PROFUSELY INSULTING!

this is some dystopia we live in. That a black player can’t be called out for clear murder or manslaughter. If this were white on black, espn would be milking this story dry. Since it’s the other way, it’s a “”freak accident””

One of the craziest things you will ever see in sports

Without a doubt, there IS More footage of that, there’s Cameras Everywhere on the Rink. The video of this really isn’t Bad at all. How the Reff who seen it & other Personal didn’t even do Anything to Help Right Away.. It was his Teammate who got the Attention for Help. The medical staff Sucked!! Adam Even got ON HIS FEET AND SKATED TO THE BENCH 😮😮 AND People are just looking at him??!!! WTH He had a Chance IF HE HAD Adequate resources there… IMO!

If you watch that terrible video slowly and run it back and forth,, you can tell PETGRAVE used the player( he supposedly collided with) used that player as a steady post/object to keep his balance so he could kick his leg up that high!! it was NO "FREAK" accident it was done on purpose! if he got tangled up with the one he collided with, that player would have been down too,, he wasn't ! If you watch it,he wasn't even knocked off balance,, PETGRAVE grabbed his shoulders in order to STEADY HIMSELF TO make the kick!!!

I want to know with the camera technolgy we have , why is the whole event so blurry? and only 1 angle?

Title is correct. This shouldnt be a hot take.

There were no "charges filed", unfortunately. He was arrested "on suspicion of manslaughter" and questioned, then released on bail with no actual charges yet.

Dirty play leg was to high and u see a kick out

Title of this video is almost the exact definition of manslaughter.

In my opinion….DELIBERATELY A KICK/Swinging of his leg, wanting to cause harm but OBVIOUSLY WENT HORRIBLY…No matter what the outcome now… ONE LIFE LOST IS ONE TOO MANY…. Petgrave must now live with his actions AND suffer the consequences of his actions … Thoughts & Prayers ho out to Adam Johnson’s entire family …🙏😢

100% NOT an accident

13:08 there doesn't even have to malicious intent. Only for there to reckless behaviour. Obviously in such a violent sport there is reckless behaviour that is part and parcel of the sport and is even legal in the sport. Any incidence of a fatality in those cases would be treated as an accident even though technically it was reckless. A player gives implied consent to violent action against them when playing a contact sport as long as it's within the rules. The problem in this case is it wasn't within the rules and malicious intent is not required for convictuon. Only reckless actions.

As always, black privilege comes through. If it was the other way around you would never hear the end of it and they would want that guy locked up

This is very shocking to us in the UK, we're not a hocky nation and aren't familiar with how the sport is played, to many of us the clips we have seen of the sport seem so violent already

Just as an aside Petgrave hasn't iced since the incident occurred.

Petgrave won't do time and everyone knows why.

The ref dhould have stopped the play

I agree I've been to several hockey games ❤. I didn't see this one. God to him and his family

Excellent analysis of the Adam Johnson tragic incident. There is a point which I have not seen discussed and that is the entire play was Offside! If you watch the slow-motion reply of Johnson and his teammate entering the zone, you can see that Johnson still has the puck on the blue line when his teammate has already entered the zone. Both skates of Johnson's teammate are over the blue line before Johnson brings the puck into the zone. The referee is seen signaling the play onside, but in my estimation, he has blown the call. I am not sure if he had blown the whistle that it would have prevented the damage to Johnson because of the speed it happened, but it is interesting to think about. ALL Hockey players should be wearing Kevlar full throat protection. One only has to remember Clint Malarchuk's throat being cut by a skate blade or Richard Zednik's throat being cut by a skate blade, or Canadian Junior player Kyle Fundytus dying after being hit in the throat by a puck. It's the 21st Century people.

Dirty play outta hand 100%.

I thought that that happened with a stick. Hockey is a dangerous sport because it's a contact sport using a stick and wearing blades.

The most telling part of that video isn’t even the kicking in the trip the off-balance leg kicked up into the air, which I’ve never seen a player or the leg that the guy had the majority of his weight on was the one that aunt went up first, but that besides the point Watch the play it was predatory from the very start. He skated over to them and watched him in a predatory manner. I’ve never seen a defensive structure where a guy states Ford going diagonally across the blue line as a defender to try and Leah hit on a guy who, technically at that point wasn’t even his man , it was predatory from the start the new guy who had the park and he wanted to hurt him in someway or triphammer make an accidental neon the contactor. Whatever he was predatory from the beginning it wasn’t in the moment I’m playing a defensive, Sasha like I should and I know I’m gonna take a vantage of a plan in the moment it was five or six seconds of him walking onto Johnson skating over to him completely purposely breaking down the defence of structure to go do something to him that’s the most telling part of the whole thing to me

Ive made my final decision that modern sports are just toned down versions of the Roman Cooliseum and gladiators. Im repulsed. I'm not a sports fan to begin with and I never will be.

So senseless, and you know a throat guard is mandatory in every league leading into the nhl, and they get to nhl they take them off. Wtf I mean if you already wore it that long you got to be use to why take it off.

What's even worse, is I believe the play was offsides. It's very close.

Poorly described

Unfortunately even if he is found guilty there will be no justice likely to get a suspended sentence.

😷 ☕

Stop spreading lies… Firstly, to the point there are no charges of manslaughter. Secondly Petgrave doesn’t knee him first then kick . Thirdly, Petgrave has not played since. If your doing a podcast at least make it factual

Wear a neck guard.

Let's hear the racists take.

ok people watch the vidieo it was a accident note he was of balance after hitting the othe player

In addition to the blatant dirty play on the ice, I think there was serious liability and mismanagement of the injury by the trainer or medical team at the stadium. Florida Panther Richard Zednik survived having his carotid slashed in a truly accidental skate contact in, 2008 - because his trainer & arena staff IMMEDIATELY pinched off the artery and continued to apply lifesaving pressure until the EMTs took over. The hospital prepped for an immediate transfusion and surgery while Zednik was in transit. He was obviously incredibly fortunate. But it seems like there was an unnecessary time delay before Johnson got emergency intervention. I could be wrong, but in addition to charging Petgrave, justice demands there should be a complete investigation of how the appropriate personnel responded to Johnson's injury from those first crucial moments to his final tragic demise.

Petgraves skate contacts the other players skate immediately prior to the incident. There is enough of a chance Petgrave lost balance that you cannot successfully prosecute.

P---- PI--- PIT-- PITGRAVE --GR ---GRA ----GRAV -----GRAVE He may not have intended murder, but he lifted his skate 5 feet off the ice for no reason ...??? So his negligence killed a man. Criminal negligence causing death (section 220) the breach amounts to a wanton or reckless disregard for the lives and safety of others. a person died as a result. the act or omission constituting the breach of a legal duty caused the person's death.