The Flyers will be without one of their veteran defensemen on Friday night as they look to close out their series against Montreal as the Department of Player Safety announced (video link) that Matt Niskanen has received a one-game suspension for his cross-check on Brendan Gallagher late in Wednesday’s contest.
The incident occurred with just over five minutes remaining in the third period. In their video describing the reason for the suspension, the league noted that they accepted Niskanen’s statement that he wasn’t trying to hit Gallagher in the head and that Gallagher’s sudden movement just before the cross-check occurred was a contributory factor to the hit landing on his head and not lower. Gallagher suffered a broken jaw on the play and will be out for the rest of this series at the very least.
With Niskanen out of the lineup, it may pave the way for Shayne Gostisbehere to return. He suited up in the first two games of the series before being scratched to make room for Robert Hagg. Gostisbehere has a history of success against Montreal; they are the only opponent that he has averaged more than a point per game against with 14 points (2-12-14) in 13 games.
Deserved. But, Kotkoniemi then deserves one as well.
You are kidding right ??
Slap on the wrist !!!! Should be for the entire series ….
well at most that would be 2 games
One more than he got for braining Sid after Ovie slew footed him in the 2017 playoffs.
Stop. You can’t seriously think Ovechkin actually slewfooted him and Crosby was the one who went into Niskanen. Niskanen reacted how anybody would have. To suggest either made a bad play is absurd, especially for someone like you who seems pretty knowledgable.
Slew foot. Plain as day. On video.
Contact is made. It’s clearly not a slewfoot though. I don’t think you can make a case at all that he did that on purpose.
I could analyze it like the Zapruder film and issue a Warren Report length summary on just how dirty that play was, actually.
Should’ve been more. If breaking jaws with cross checks only gets you one game I hope Wiese makes use of the new precedent
NHL playoff officiating is an absolute joke. One set of rules for the regular season and a different set of rules for the playoffs. What other sport does this???
Uhhhhh? NFL? NBA?
MLB literally changes the number of players who play in the game during the World Series as 1/2 those games have a DH and half don’t.
Gallagher is a pest so I know Niskanen went to give him a shot, but I do think the intention wasn’t on the chin. Gallagher puts himself in compromising positions very regularly with his diving.
What?
Just like Sanheim turned at the last second causing Kotkaniemi’s (still illegal) charge to become a more dangerous boarding, Gallagher puts himself in compromising positions that make hits against him worse than intended.
It is not the responsibility of Gallagher to not be cross checked in the face and have his jaw broken. Niskanen was reckless
Yes, and he deserved the suspension, but let’s not pretend the reckless act came out of nowhere to some innocent Lady Byng candidate either. Guys are going to take shots when you play the style Gallagher plays, and my original point was that he doesn’t do himself any favors with his body positioning, but we can disagree on that.
When you injure another player you should automatically miss the same number of games that the injured player misses. You cannot resume play until they return
The referees need to read the rule book again.
They allow crosschecking, slashing, hooking etc to go on all the time.
No benefit to the game at all!