No he did not. The hit was not late and the head was not the principle point of contact. That season, they were giving a full second between puck touch and hit. The only time the .5 of a second was referenced was when the league tried to justify the ridiculous suspension for a clean just hit because it looked bad.. It also helped boston by taking away another d-man on an already limping corp.
I'm not going to bother responding to you anymore.You admonish people for saying bad things about messier because they didn't see the incident even though that is what the thread is about. You then go on to defend messier by guessing what happened because you also did not see it yet your opinion is somehow valid while Canucks fans opinions are not. You try to dictate criteria for "dirty". You claim to not defend dirty yet you have defended messier's dirty play and now boychuk's dirty play.
You also resorted to a go to move of league stooges and trolls.
If you respond to me, a simple response in binary code is all that's needed.