The Golden Knights will indeed be without winger Ryan Reaves for their series-opening game against Dallas on Sunday as the league announced that he has received a one-game suspension for an illegal check to the head of Canucks forward Tyler Motte on Friday night. The video from the Department of Player Safety explaining their decision can be found here.
The hit occurred late in the second period and Reaves received a major and a match penalty for the hit which was reviewed and upheld by officials. Vancouver was unable to score with the critical man advantage and ultimately fell 3-0.
With Reaves out of the lineup, Nick Cousins will likely take his place for Game One against the Stars. He had been scratched when Tomas Nosek returned on Friday night. He has five assists in 14 games so far this postseason while Reaves has four helpers in 15 contests.
I vote for an extra game, to make it an even number: TWO. Sorry, Reavers, but that was an uncool head shot.
Agreed
As opposed to a cool headshot?
as opposed to a warm headshot?
As opposed to a sexy headshot?
@cannachusetts – Too sexy for the bin and the requisite 5 minutes of staring at the attendant…
Been doing this shit his whole career and yet the league continues to let it happen, he needs a serious punishment
That’s way too little for that hit, especially because of player of his talent level sits out every other game anyway
Vancouver Canucks: Hey Ryan, let’s all protest unnecessary violence together.
Reeves: Thanks! Now ima try to end Motte’s career and give him brain trauma!
Hey highandtight, being afraid of being murdered for just being in your own home, or for while sleeping in your bed, or for walking down the street is not the same thing as a dirty hit in a hockey game. Maybe, your biases are too large to tell the difference.
I’m not gonna get into open police cases, and I urge everyone to do their own research on every story, no matter what your political party.
What I meant was that Stastny had already separated Motte from the puck, and it was just laying there for Reeves to steal, but he never even looked at the puck, he went straight for Motte’s head. For someone who doesn’t want people in vulnerable positions to be preyed upon, Reeves didn’t provide a good example of that.
Oh, and no biases here. Multi-racial family. No hard feelings either, brother.
Not sure on this one…
Did he try to hit him or did he actually try to avoid a head hit?
He had him lined up a mile away, if he wanted to square him up with his shoulder, it would have been easy, but the actual contact seemed to be with Reaves shoulder blades, which suggests he tried to slide by and avoid contact, but he’s really big and there was a tight area because of other players on the other side of Reaves from Motte.
I think a major (in the playoffs) was probably enough.
I just saw 6 different angles on NHL Network, each tells a different story.
In some, Reaves does appear to make direct shoulder to head contact. If so, then it’s actually more like 3 game suspension worthy.
@The Mistake of Giving Eugene Melnyk a Liver Transplant & @DarkSide830 – “Uncool” because of the league’s supposed “stern stance” on getting head shots out of the game. NHL Lip Service, once again… I suppose “Horse-bleep” would have been a bit more appropriate, or simply a “B.S. head shot” would have worked. Either way, it was avoidable, but Ryan stayed on the tracks for the hit anyway.
Why did Brendan Lemieux get 2 games for a less dangerous hit ?
Ridiculous