The Winnipeg Jets lost game one of their second round series against the Montreal Canadiens and now will be losing one of their most important players. Mark Scheifele will have a hearing with the Department of Player Safety to determine the supplementary discipline for his hit on Canadiens forward Jake Evans at the end of last night’s game. It is important to note that it is not an in-person hearing, meaning the suspension will not be greater than five games.
With Montreal defending a lead, Evans raced to collect a loose puck in the Winnipeg zone and deposit it for the game-clinching empty-net goal. As he did, Scheifele skated nearly the entire length of the rink, first appearing to be backchecking to prevent the score. Instead of trying to poke the puck off Evans stick as he wrapped it into the net, Scheifele instead stopped his stride and prepared for a hit. The resulting contact was forceful and left Evans down and unconscious on the ice. He would need to be stretchered off, and Scheifele would receive a five-minute major and game misconduct.
There are very few in the league who consider Scheifele a dirty player, but almost everyone can agree that this hit did not need to happen. The DoPS obviously believes it as well, as the Winnipeg center will be sitting down for a while.
One of the dirtiest hits I’ve ever seen. This was Dale Hunter on Pierre Turgeon squared.
Suspended for the rest of the postseason should be on the table.
Hahahahahaaha good one!
First comment on the Hockey board for me, but I am really annoyed by this being called a disgusting hit. Yes, Mark definitely took more of a run than most checks, and could have made an attempt to keep the puck out of the net, but he was going to make contact anyway. He just hit him harder than we see in the 2021 NHL.
Call me old fashioned, but a big check is now considered disgusting, but the constant cross checking that would have been penalties twenty years ago is ok? The amount of stick work in the current NHL is what should be considered disgusting. Big hits and the concern that if you did something dirty could get you pummeled in a fight was the NHL I watched growing up, not this almost unwatchable attempt to play Pro hockey now.
Yeah, I’m not of the opinion it was disgusting. Probably not entirely necessary, but was it dirty? Unfortunate outcome. If he had not been knocked unconscious, would it have been less “disgusting?” Scott Stevens was glorified for such hits. Different time, different game I guess.
It’s true, I agree with you. Why shouldn’t this hit have happened? Should Evans be allowed to non-chalantly tuck an EN goal in with his head down and not get leveled since he’s not paying attention? This is the Stanley Cup Playoffs for christ sake. There was nothing dirty about this hit and I can’t understand this knee jerk reaction people have these days to call everything dirty and unnecessary. Evans shares some of the blame for not having his head up and thinking he’d be allowed to put that puck in with no contest from Jets players hurrying down the ice trying to stop the goal. The Jets still had time to score, after all. I don’t even think this is charging. Sheifele isn’t hauling down the ice to hit Evans, he’s trying to stop the EN goal. Hitting Evans was a last second decision and I think it was warranted.
Poke check? Give me a break, You stop the goal however you can. Poke checking here may have resulted in poke checking it right into his own net. The only thing wrong with it is Sheifele caught Evans right in the chin. I don’t think it was the primary point of contact, but at the speed Sheifele was skating, it didn’t need to be. I generally have no problem with the decision to hit Evans here. I would even say I loved it, but Evans took it right in the chin which was the only thing about it that was not good.
It is ridiculous to me to call this dirty or unnecessary. Literally, the game is on the line in this moment and there is surely some frustration on the part of Sheifele here. What’s he supposed to do? Give up on the play and roll over to Evans tucking an EN goal in with no urgency at all? Of course he gets crushed.
Sheifele did catch Evans in the chin and will get some games for it, but he has no history and there’s no way he misses the rest of the playoffs. He may not even miss the rest of the series, this is a first offense and there’s zero malicious intent to injure Evans here. No problem with the decision to hit here, he just caught too much of Evans’ chin.
Thank you. I’m so sick of brain dead Twitter users claiming any injury from a big in the nhl should be a career suspension. This is the playoffs. Very unfortunate Evans gets hurt, but you gotta know that in a playoff game down one players are gonna be flying down the ice to stop you from scoring. I hate to talk I’ll of the injured but he’s gotta look up. I will say I think it’s somewhat of a cheap shot but it happens so quick and you’re in the moment with your sole goal to stop the puck from going in. I’m just so tired of people who don’t even know or watch hockey blasting their big mouths everywhere. I really do hate the internet and I’m mid-20s
He made no effort to stop the goal. None. He took out his anger on a defenseless player’s head.
Had he made any effort (he in fact moves his stick behind him to get better leverage on his hit instead of using it to stop the goal) to stop the goal, he could argue he was trying to make a hockey play.
He did not.
Except he almost did stop the goal. Use his stick to do what? Poke it into his own net? That’s all he could have done with his stick. Made no effort to stop the goal? lol … That’s the whole reason he even managed to get there almost in time to stop the goal. He got there at the last second and you’re suggesting a poke check? No, you go for the body all day long there because it’s your only shot to stop the goal; stop the body of the player trying to put it in. Are you seriously suggesting that body checks don’t qualify as an effort to stop a goal? It’s literally one of the main ways to do that. You don’t use your stick to stop a goal in that situation because it has zero chance of working.
The main blow was to the body, but he did catch his chin, yes. It’s completely overblown to say he “took it out on his head” since it wasn’t the primary point of contact. Do you have to sensationalize everything? Evans is defenseless there, but it’s his own fault. He has control of the puck and can be legally checked into next Tuesday. If he’s in a defenseless position there, it’s entirely on him… like it was with Lindros.
Body checking someone with the puck IS a hockey play. Period. It also qualifies as an effort stop that player from doing whatever he is doing or trying to do.
Point of contact was not Evans head.
Yep, that’s why he’s going to get suspended…because it was a hockey play.
And he could have poke checked it before it was brought around the net. Your choice that he had to poke it in his own net or leave his feet to concuss a guy is a false one.
Even if you don’t believe he would have been successful in this attempt to poke check, that he did not try proves his intent. He Dale Hunter’ed the guy.
The fact that he hit him isn’t the problem, it’s the fact that you can see him raise and deliver an elbow to the side of the head as he makes contact. Shows deliberate intent.
He’s going to get suspended because of the head contact, not the fact he delivered a hit. Body checking him there IS a hockey play. The head contact, even if it wasn’t the primary point of contact, was enough to cause him to have to be stretchered off. He also hit his head on the ice on the way down.
No, he couldn’t have poke checked it before he brought it around the net. He wasn’t close enough to do that, so there absolutely no point in trying to do something that you’re not in position to do. It proves nothing of intent.
Once again, you guys are making things up because he did not leave his feet until after the hit. His skates were firmly on the ice when the impact occurred, his elbow was down and his shoulder was the only thing involved. You can slo-mo the video below even more to see the stripes on his jersey at his elbow were clearly down and only rose up after the impact. It was shoulder to chest/chin. Literally, BOTH his skates are firmly on the ice at impact and his elbow is down at waist level.
link to youtube.com
If Evans has his head up instead of playing like the Jets were already on their way down the tunnel back to the dressing room, this wouldn’t be an issue. His head is down because he’s not paying attention to who’s coming and leaves himself defenseless. His landed on his head/neck and who knows how much of his injury was caused by that as opposed to the hit itself.
It looks to me like a poke check would have helped knock the puck into the net there. That slo-mo shows it closer than it looks at speed, but to imply he decided to go headhunting because he didn’t do what you think he should have done isn’t reasonable.
Sure, he intended to go in for a hard hit, but implying he intended to hit him in the head? He would have gotten a lot more head if he wanted to do that. Sheifele doesn’t have a history of this, so I’m not sure why you’d immediately jump to that conclusion. Why should any team allow a wrap-around EN goal in the playoffs like that and pass up a chance to let that player and team know they’re not going to just get away with that without taking a hard hit?
I don’t believe for one second Sheifele intended to knock Evans out like that, but he did and will get a few games for it.
Amen.
I wish in the playoffs they just went kinda generic and said something like
“The rest of this round” (Scheifele) or “this round and next” (Kadri)
Saying something like that means at least 3 if MTL now sweeps, but could be up to 6 if it gets pushed to 7 games
Kadris would then have been as low as 6 (2 sweeps) but as high as 12 (2 seven game series, but that didn’t happen so even with the adjustment the highest would be 9 now)
Many times in my career I’ve had players brought on the carpet for suspension. There are times I stood up for my client,even knowing he was wrong. I’ve begged for leniency and other times told people what I thought of them.
This is the new NHL,full of pansies. No one in the league knows how to take a hit. Why? They don’t teach it any more.
Clean but brutal hit. Was he suppose to just let up and let him score?
Elbow in,feet on the ice.
At what point are players responsible for putting themselves in a position that allows them to get hit? “He’s in a prone,exposed position.” WHO PUT THEM THERE? He put his head down and drove to the net trying to score.
I’d bench 55 if he let up and allowed him to score.
At some point,a player,coach,GM and organization needs to stand up and say NO. “We are sorry they got hurt,but we are fed up with a clean play resulting in a suspension.”
Feel free to disagree. But it’s a clean but brutal hit. And “he traveled a long distance….” you’ve got to be kidding me.
I agree with everything you said except for one concern. If we decide that there should be no penalty if the puck carrier has put himself in a prone, exposed position and he takes a hit to the head as a result of that, I’d be concerned that there’d be guys who would take advantage of this to deliberately target the head knowing there won’t be a penalty for it. I do think that the degree to which the puck carrier puts himself in a prone, exposed position should factor heavily into any decision regarding supplementary discipline.
Players definitely need to keep their heads up and if they don’t, they are at least partially responsible for what happens next. Otherwise, we’re just going to end up at a place where guys will just skate down the ice with their heads down knowing no one can touch them without getting suspended.
I don’t know if organizations will start to say the things you suggest, but I think it would probably be a net positive. Suspensions should not be thrown around trivially otherwise they’re meaningless. Worst of the worst only. Players should not be absolved of responsibility in their own injuries and it shouldn’t be transferred to someone else.
Dangerous and unnecessary
Oh boy, all of the morons coming out today.
Great comment, even better username!
He will get probably 1 game but it should be about 2-3 and yes it was a predator on the loose that was pissed off at every situation that happened on the ice.. Yes there should be a response to the hit. Isn’t it the code…LOL
By the letter of the rule book it was charging. There’s no argument against that. I agree that evans left himself exposed, but the only thing he should have to be wary of was an illegal hit. Players should not have to be afraid to tuck in the empty netter because someone might break the rules. He was well within his rights to play that the way he did, as no legal hit could have been made.
I do agree that the hit itself was unfortunate, and not necessarily ‘dirty’. But he charged him. Plain and simple against the rules. And if you hurt a guy as a result of breaking the rules, you should be suspended. 100% percent of the time, no exceptions. It doesn’t have to mean that Scheifele is a goon. It doesn’t have to be the remainder of the postseason. It doesn’t even have to have anything to do with intent. The fact is he broke the rules, it resulted in a serious injury, and he will be punished accordingly as a guy with no prior history of these types of things.
For everyone who thinks that the players these days should toughen up, or wants to blame the victim, you should read the rules. If you don’t like the rules, that’s fine. But I’m pretty sure Evans didn’t write that rule into existence hoping one day he might get signed to a contract and have a chance to get an empty netter with his head down. You can’t call out a guy for playing within the rules and defend the guy who breaks them, while calling everyone who disagrees with you stupid.
It wasn’t charging because the rule states that the purpose must be to deliver a body check to punish an opponent. The reason they were skating at high speeds down the ice was to try to stop a goal from being scored. It wasn’t to punish an opponent or deliver a hit. That decision was made at the last second.
He didn’t leave his feet to deliver the check, he didn’t travel great distances with the purpose of punishing an opponent and you are incorrect when stating it’s not about intent. The rule explicitly states that intent is a significant factor that must be taken into consideration. This was not charging because the intent was to get to the other end of the ice to prevent a goal from being scored. It was not to punish Evans. Just because it happened doesn’t mean that was the intent all along.
link to usahockeyrulebook.com
link to usahockeyrulebook.com
The rule explicitly factors intent into the penalty.
“Skating a great distance for the purpose of delivering a check with excessive force”
Not sure where you’re getting confused.
I’m not confused at all. The purpose for Sheifele skating a great distance was to stop a goal from being scored. It was not to deliver a body check with excessive force. That ended up happening, but are you telling me Sheifele would have been skating that fast down the ice if there was no danger of a goal being scored? That was the sole purpose of the Jets players booking it down the ice towards Evans. It was not because they intended on punishing Evans, it was to stop him from scoring.
You’re trying to say the purpose was solely to hit Evans which is nonsense. The rule states that delivering a body check MUST be the purpose. If it’s not the purpose, it’s not charging. This wasn’t charging. You’re trying to manufacture intent to prove your point when there was clearly an intent and it had nothing to do with punishing Evans.
Applying the rule the way you’re trying to, any skater moving at a high speed that checks someone is always charging. A player who is booking it down the ice chasing the puck and ends up hitting someone isn’t charging for the same reason. The purpose is the player is chasing the puck.
Sheifele got four games. I think it’s reasonable.