May 21: The hearing has been scheduled for this afternoon.
May 20: It has happened again, Nazem Kadri will be suspended in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Colorado Avalanche forward was given a match penalty and a five-minute major for his hit on St. Louis Blues defenseman Justin Faulk last night and today was offered an in-person hearing with the Department of Player Safety. The in-person hearing gives the league the option to suspend Kadri for more than five games, a likely situation given his history.
Kadri, 30, has been suspended five times in his career, including twice in the playoffs when he was with the Toronto Maple Leafs. In 2019, he was banned for the remaining five games of the Maple Leafs first-round series against the Boston Bruins for a cross-check on Jake Debrusk.
The incident occurred in the third period of last night’s game. As Faulk received a drop pass in the high slot and tried to release a shot, Kadri came across the middle and delivered a hard check. The blow appeared to catch Faulk’s head, as he spun and stayed down on the ice. Faulk would leave the game and the Blues did not yet update his status.
This kind of incident is a big part of the reason why the Maple Leafs traded Kadri, despite him being a very impressive player at both ends of the ice. In 56 games this season he scored 11 goals and 32 points, giving the team some strong depth scoring and physicality. The Avalanche will likely have to navigate the rest of the first round without him.
Dude just can’t stay out of trouble and making stupid penalties.
He gets what he deserves
“The blow appeared to catch Faulk’s head”?
What, did you hear about this from a friend or something? Were you unable to watch the video yourself and comprehend the intent?
He was clearly head hunting, it is a pattern behavior of his, and hopefully it is addressed.
“Delivered a hard check” is also ridiculous. That wasn’t a “check” it was a targeting the head, nothing else.
Well worded Gavin
I love how they say he’s “offered” an in-person hearing. So he has a chance to refuse? What’s the alternative? If the league wants to send a message, he’ll be suspended 10+ games or even the remainder of the playoffs. Clearly 5 games has not stopped him before
Yes, he can refuse, and often players do. In this case though, since the “in-person” is actually over zoom, I doubt he will pass.
In person is often refused. The player can accept that they made a mistake and just accept the penalty. In person gives them an opportunity to show remorse “in person”. To take the “in person” penalty they likely have to pay their own bill to get to and from NYC. To just take it on call, they know they screwed up and will just accept it.
Anyone surprised? The guy hurts his team. Plain and simple he doesn’t care about anyone else…intent to injure, getting suspended…both are selfish acts.
Now the team may not have their #2 center for the next round (if they get through the Blues)
Finally avalanche fans will understand the Reason why the leafs were forced to trade him
Guy is a mental midget.
I thought that noise last night sounded familiar – the Naz alarm went off again. The Nazmanian Devil is back, with extra stupidity. With his current team, we’ll see how their depth is tested. This must result in a significant suspension, since he has devolved into his bad old self. He must be in “if Tom Wilson doesn’t get suspended, I can’t get suspended” mode.
Easy to dump on him, but it was a razor thin play by a guy playing hard.
What I ask is, why did they get rid of the “low bridge” hit? They made an example out of Marchand for doing it.
Kadri has to stay high to go shoulder to shoulder and it’s easy to hit the head at that point. Had Kadri crouched low and hit him in the waist area it would have been much better for all involved.
Don’t agree with your assessment of the hit. Kadri had the ability to mitigate the hit and chose not too. Was reckless and endangered the opposing player. He also has major history and has been told he can’t play like that anymore. Should get and deserves to get at least remainder of series
Razor thin still puts him on the wrong side of the line. And his history seals his fate.
But he was lined up for a chest hit for most of his approach until Faulk’s follow through moved his head. He wasn’t pulling a Matt Cooke or anything.
By not allowing low hits, the NHL forces players to target a relatively small area where a small error ends up as a head shot.
That’s a good point. Also, I hadn’t considered the removal of the low hit as being a contributing factor to things like this. It does put smaller guys like Kadri, Marchand etc.. at a distinct disadvantage. It limits their hit options to ones that have a high risk of injury and a low margin of error in a game that moves extremely fast.
It definitely didn’t look good in the end, but it does seem like Faulk’s sudden change in body orientation during his follow through suddenly left him wide open. In cases like that, should intent really be ascribed? His history hurts him a lot for sure, though. I’m all for bringing back low hits. it’s certainly better than high ones so long as it’s thigh level or above.
As can be seen all over the place, people have a great deal of trouble removing their emotions from the situation when trying to assess it. That is what the DOPS does and is probably why so many people can’t understand why they make the decisions they do; one is making decisions without their emotions involved and the fans are judging with 100% of their emotions involved. It’s no wonder the latter so often doesn’t understand the former, but that’s (thankfully) why fans don’t and shouldn’t run the DOPS.
Throw him out of the playoffs the league missed how many calls this year and why is it always pick on repeat offenders it is a rec league anyways …Faulk is to much to blame for taking a shot and not knowing who is out there…just a bad game to play in. So I will say Schenn’s hit on Rantanen was bad but he got his fill the best way. FISTS..
Faulk is to blame? That’s an interesting take.
Now, if he’d removed the helmet and then ragdolled Justin headfirst into the ice it’d be ok. A small fine, keep playing.
Like knuckles Nilan said on podcast the other day the league and people that run it are too soft ..He mentioned that he would be kicked out of the league if he was playing today…the head will always be hit in a perfect body check…every time..
The same could be said for a lot of guys who played even 20 years ago. Most of the Red Wings / Avalanche players of the late 90’s too. I agree with the assessment of the league getting too soft. They’ve also attracted a lot of “soft” fans as well to the sport who don’t really seem to understand the sport to a degree.
Suspensions and the like should be reserved for the worst of the worst IMO and the maximum allowable fine should be raised substantially. Five grand is nothing to these guys. So many of these fans today want suspensions for the smallest things sometimes to the point that throwing someone to the ice that tries to fight you should be a suspension worthy offense. It’s pretty indicative of the “softness” that exists in the sport today, but thankfully the DOPS isn’t soft.. yet.
I fully expect Kadri to get one, but someone above brought up an interesting point involving the impact of removing low hits from the game.
Good point about the type of fan the league seems to be trying to attract. They really seem to want NBA fans, not the one’s they have. By the look at the leagues TV ratings, they clearly are making a huge mistake.
Marek and Bourne reminded us of the “18-month” rule regarding the definition of “repeat offender.” Since Naz is past that (unless the league tries to engage in “new math”), he isn’t supposed to be treated as a “repeat offender.” If the league does use that against him, the NHLPA might fight it. Even though it’s been more than 18 months, I think he should get something significant. Rodeo hockey and head shots are supposed to be taken out of the game, but maybe the league is waiting for yet another round of litigation to find out the hard way that being pro-active is infinitely better than reactive.
Just to clarify this, the “18-month repeat offender” designation is only for salary forfeiture, not suspension length. His previous suspensions will be taken into account in this case, even if they are outside of the 18-month period.
@Gavin – You’re expecting Parros & Co. to get this one right? The Wilson stink-o-thon is still being talked about like it was yesterday. I don’t have a lot of faith that this one will be done right, with regards to fine and suspension. He might try to legislate an illegal (by CBA) fine, and make up a suspension without precedence. Naz should absolutely be sat down for a sizeable length of time, maybe even through the next series, should they make it that far. I have a feeling that the comments section for your follow-up on this will fill up in a hurry… My add will simply be {head shaking} at that time.
Finally, a situation where the league disciplining the Avs more so than other teams is a good thing. Kadri, you are a bum.
And more importantly, here’s to a speedy recovery Faulk.
So, the NHL has the ability to suspend Kadri (rightfully so), but Tom Wilson gets a free pass for what he did to the Rangers?
Yeah, that’s some bs
I got a speeding ticket at 17, the police officer never showed up to court so I was found innocent. Does this logic apply to Kadri’s alleged in person hearing today?