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Did Duncan Keith mock injured David Backes after Seabrook hit? (Video)

Did Duncan Keith mock injured David Backes after Seabrook hit? (Video)

After Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook freight-trained him with a charge to the head in Game 2 on Saturday, St. Louis Blues captain David Backes struggled to his skates and attempted to confront his assailant. He wobbled, his legs buckling. In our age of concussion awareness, it was a disturbing scene.

Or, alternately, a hilarious one for someone watching the play with Blackhawks allegiances. Check out the audio here, around the 45-second mark, as someone exclaims, “Wakey Wakey, Backey, Wakey Wakey!”

So the conventional wisdom since the end of the game is that it was Duncan Keith that uttered this mockery, because his lips are moving and he’s nearby and it sorta sounds like Duncan Keith and he’s the kinda guy that would say it.

I couldn’t confirm it from the clip – hell, it could have been one of those glass-banging Blackhawks fans watching the action for all we know – but I guess that’s what we’re going with.

No, it’s never cool to mock someone that might have a brain injury. But I this is another case of word policing at an NHL game, where the mics happen to pick up that 1 percent of nastiness shared between both teams. (And no, I don’t believe a team that has Max Lapierre and Steve Ott in its employ has its hands clean in that regard.)

So Duncan Keith (maybe) says this, and then our outrage culture online gets outraged about it, and then everybody takes their eye off the really deplorable thing that happened here, which was someone delivering a blow to the head to a defenseless player and then smiling like an idiot about it.