BOSTON – Vancouver defenseman Aaron Rome wouldn’t change much about the hit on Boston’s Nathan Horton that got him suspended for the rest of the Stanley Cup finals.

Rome spoke Sunday for the first time about his finals-record four-game suspension after skating with the Canucks in practice heading into Game 6 tonight.

“I’ve got to play on the edge, and I guess that was a little bit over the edge,” said Rome.

While Rome has sympathy for Horton, who’s out for the series with a concussion, he doesn’t feel he did anything extraordinarily dangerous in their fast, hard-hitting sport when he flattened Horton early in Game 3 last week. Rome said he sent a text message to Horton, but hadn’t heard back.

“It’s a split-second decision,” Rome said. “There’s no intent to hurt anybody. If I could go back, obviously I’d wish he didn’t get hurt, but I don’t think I’d change the decision on the play.”

Rome delivered his hit after Horton made a pass near the blue line, leaving the Boston forward unconscious. Horton left the building on a stretcher, and the Bruins rode a wave of emotion to consecutive victories at home.

Although Rome’s ban is four times longer than any handed out in finals history, he hasn’t appealed it, hinting that he feels such a move is pointless. Rome said the NHL’s suspension criteria were “arbitrary,” and he doesn’t understand why the league ended his chance to skate for the Stanley Cup after a hit he believes was barely illegal.

Rome had no significant history as a dirty player before this hit. The journeyman defenseman has played in 131 NHL games with three clubs over the past five seasons, bouncing up and down from the AHL before earning a full-time job in Vancouver this year.

 


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