A deadly razor's edge

 Like a lot of you, I'm guessing, I've seen the replay at least half a dozen times now. And I still can't tell.

Can't tell if Matt Petgrave's flailing left leg was some sort of bizarre karate kick aimed at Adam Johnson, or if it was just a flailing left leg.

Can't tell if Johnson dying on the ice was just an awful freak accident, or a deliberate act.

Slo-mo. Super slo-mo. Regular speed. I've seen it every way you can see it, and I still don't know.

From one angle, and at one speed, it looks like Petgrave collides with another player, catches an edge, and flings his left leg out as he fights for balance. From another angle, and another speed, it looks like ... well, some sort of bizarre karate kick.

This is the problem with men at speed on skates, flying at one another from random angles: Intent is sometimes a fine line. And in this particular case, a fine line inscribed by a deadly razor's edge.

In any event, Johnson, a former Pittsburgh Penguin playing for the Nottingham Panthers of the English Ice Hockey Association, is dead after Petgrave's skate cut his throat and he bled out while on-ice officials and teammates frantically tried to stop his life from spilling out of him. And local police are investigating the incident, trying to figure out if they should charge Petgrave with voluntary or involuntary manslaughter, or with nothing at all.

I wish them luck. Intent, and all that.

The rush to judgment, despite Intent And All That, has been swift, because that's just what we do these days. Social media has added several miles per hour to that process, but it's not the sole offender. A lot of it you can lay at the feet of the divisive politics of our day, all that willingness -- even eagerness -- to declare Our Side good and Their Side evil.

In truth, both sides are rarely either. Mostly one side is just stupid and self-serving, and the other side reacts by being stupid and self-serving in return. Thus has it ever been.

And Matt Petgrave?

I'm no mind-reader, as the rushers-to-judgment presume themselves to be. I do wonder why he'd go out of his way to injure a player who wasn't really in his path, but the rushers-to-judgment maintain that's just the kind of cheap-shot artist he is.

In the meantime, a still-young man is dead when he shouldn't be. And the league in which he played is going to mandate neck protectors from here on out.

As usual, too late.