New York Rangers captain Jacob Trouba laid out a devastating open-ice hit on Chicago Blackhawks forward Andreas Athanasiou over the weekend, one which the former did not take kindly to. Trouba, who has been accused of headhunting of late, took out Athanasiou with the massive hit, prompting the Blackhawks forward to take a shot at the Rangers' defenseman in the aftermath.

Following Saturday's game, Athanasiou took a dig at Trouba for his lack of points on the season, despite being one of the league's highest-paid defensemen and the Rangers' captain, via Ben Pope.

ā€œHeā€™s an $8 million man with 0 goals, so he has to figure out how to do something when making that much. If you canā€™t help the team, I guess you try to hurt guys on the other team.ā€

Trouba's lack of presence in the offensive zone for the Rangers has been a point of criticism for the recently-named captain. Since adding the ā€œCā€ to his uniform, Trouba has just six points in 26 games and is a -9 on the year. Last season, he registered 39 points and was a +25 in terms of plus/minus.

His lack of goal contributions was noticed by Athanasiou, and after the dirty antics from Trouba on Saturday, the Blackhawks forward savagely clapped back.

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Athanasiou was uninjured after the body check, but he didn't hesitate to call out Trouba for blatantly trying to hurt opponents with some of his recent hits.

Jacob Trouba has seen his scoring dip massively this season, but his level of physicality has sky-rocketed. After recording 207 hits in 81 games last year (2.55 per game), the Rangers captain has 88 hits in his first 26 contests this year (3.38 per game).