The playoffs have so far been quite the busy period for the Department of Player Safety, already handing out suspensions to Drew Doughty, Nazem Kadri and Josh Morrissey. Today, they’ll have a hearing with Ryan Hartman of the Nashville Predators to determine whether his hit on Colorado’s Carl Soderberg last night requires any supplementary discipline.
Hartman collided with Soderberg midway through the third period, and was given a two-minute charging penalty. The hit came after Soderberg had passed the puck and seemed to have significant contact with the head. It was actually Hartman’s third penalty of the game, and now he might face even more discipline from the league offices.
Nikita Kucherov, who was also involved in an incident last night, will not receive a hearing after his hit on Sami Vatanen last night. The league, according to Darren Dreger of TSN, decided that the head was not the main point of contact and will not review it further.
deserves a suspension. Hartman got speared last night which was bad and deserved a penalty which was not called but essentially was head hunting the rest of the game. charged a number of players who got out of the way but that basic intent to injure was there.
should get a game
Kucherov’s hit was virtually the same as Doughty’s and Doughty got a game. Kucherov doesn’t even get a hearing? Normally I defend the NHL amid all the uneven punishments but I’m not seeing how this squares.
Nick kyprios was on last night saying he felt whole it looked worse overall he felt there was more contact through the shoulder than the head directly though certainly by replay that’s hard to see.
player safety department I feel only has been focusing on headshots and can’t even always get that right. merchand near the end of game 3 took a two handed swing at Morgan Reilly and only received two minutes. now is it a suspension? probably not but should warrant a fine. any other player tries to take that hack and they are certainly getting fined.
Nick kyprios was on last night saying he felt whole it looked worse overall he felt there was more contact through the shoulder than the head directly though certainly by replay that’s hard to see.
player safety department I feel only has been focusing on headshots and can’t even always get that right. merchand near the end of game 3 took a two handed swing at Morgan Reilly and only received two minutes. now is it a suspension? probably not but should warrant a fine. any other player tries to take that hack and they are certainly getting fined.
I still find the NHL reactive to headshots vs proactive in trying to keep it out of the game and it’s going to only hurt their product (and likely pockets with concussion lawsuits on the rise)
I agree they are quite reactive to headshots. I think a more egregious play was the slash Matt Read delivered to the back of Brassard’s legs as he was going to the bench in the Pens/Flyers game last night.