The Department of Player Safety has some work to do, announcing a scheduled hearing for today with Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Matt Niskanen. The hearing concerns an incident from last night’s game, in which Niskanen cross-checked Montreal Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher. Niskanen was not penalized on the play, while Gallagher has been scheduled for a CT scan to examine the extent of his injury (though he played the rest of the game).
Flyers fans will not be happy with this decision, at least in the context of the rest of the game. Jesperi Kotkaniemi will not receive any supplementary discipline for his check on Travis Sanheim, which earned him a five-minute major and game misconduct. There will also be nothing from the league on the hit at the end of the game which caused a scrum and three more misconducts.
In an arena with no fans with players isolated from the rest of the world, the Flyers and Canadiens are summoning images of another era of hockey. The two teams combined for 67 penalty minutes last night and now a suspension, but will have to get back on the ice tomorrow night.
that whole darn Canadiens team was trying to take our heads off last night
You mean the flyers have never played goon hockey before?
Lol no
Wait, which Flyers player are you?
even as an ardent hockey fan i agree with the Flyers twitter bandwagon – their style is annoying
Ok. Where’s Weber’s meeting? He basically ripped Hayes’ helmet off and slammed him to the ice in the third period.
@mhaftman7 – Word on the street is that G. Parros was just getting ready to throw the punishment dart at his board for Shea Weber when he heard this on TSN690:
Dan-O: “Wow! Michel Therrien is really dressed to the nines tonight!”
Sergio: “He should be working in a movie theater with that jacket!”
High hits should be looked at, but cross checking a guy in the face and breaking his jaw (and knocking out teeth) is 100% intent to injure. Hits to the head are often at high speed with moments notice. Not that I defend it – the league needs to punish dangerous hits, but if you ever have played hockey you know a guy could turn a split second before you make contact, or how easily accidental it can be to raise your shoulder.
The rest (gloves to the face, slashes, roughing, etc.) are all playoff hockey traditions!
How about taking the visors off and removing the hard caps on the equipment? And the instigator penalty.
Niskanen’s at least gotta get 1 game. Cross check a guy’s teeth out. Lol
Good thing I don’t play for the Habs, they’d all look like Bobby Clark