Hamilton was having a very good playoffs up until this point.
Numbers-wise maybe, but there were signs the wheels were coming off the cart as early as WAS series.
That polite step to the side... "Ovi, no no no.....please, you take the puck" to give up the third goal in a game early in that series was simply unacceptable. Cowardice supreme. Shortly after that you see Dougie throw a forearm shiver directly into the face of a Capital against the boards that inexplicably was not addressed by DOPS after the game.
Same trend here. Afraid of Nordstrom hit coming -- spends entire time with head over his shoulder looking at Nordstrom TOTALLY ignoring puck before throwing out an elbow. He sits for 2 minutes which costs his team a goal and then shortly thereafter he takes a run at Backes and gets called for interference. You can argue with the interfence call, but it's the trend I see.
Afraid to get hit. Avoids hit by taking action that hurts his team (goal). Responds shortly thereafter with aggressive borderline hit as if to show that he's really a tough guy.
The Nelson head pat in handshake line was same thing. Dougie trying to show he's a tough team leader...... why????? because he's a coward on the ice. One of the most devastating labels in sport -- but most of all hockey.
I think we are seeing what Dougie is and always will be throughout these playoffs. A very good offensive defenseman who is suspect defensively, lacks courage on the ice, is selfish, and does things that just make you shake your head.
When the bloom is off the rose in Carolina (i.e. once the dust settles on this playoff season), unless they win the whole thing (winning has a way of smoothing over a lot) there's gonna be a few old school guys who question what kind of player they have in Dougie (i.e. Staal, Williams, Brind'amour). Whether they say anything publicly or not is a different question, but IMO they will ask themselves whether this is a guy to go to war with.