The hit was absolutely dirty, but if I give one thing to Rome (which is very hard for me to do), it was that he kept his elbow tucked in. Had he drove his shoulder into Horton's body he would have laid a great hit, albeit late and still likely an interference penalty.His head was not down, he made a pass at the blue line and was watching to see when he could enter the zone and not be offside.
The hit was super dirty, leading with the elbow and jumping into the hit.
Who here that is bitching that he should keep his head up has played a day of competitive hockey or professional hockey a day in their life??? That's what I thought.
Tangent:
I'm a huge proponent of dumbing down players equipment including shoulder pads. The human body is amazing thing and I believe that by removing some of this non-essential football padding that players wear nowadays, will involuntarily smarten them up since (sub)consciously they will know that they can't play with the same reckless abandonment.