3:34 p.m.: Per the Department of Player Safety, there will be no supplemental discipline assessed to Borowiecki. A Twitter statement relays that “after a hearing and a review of all available angles, [the Department has] determined that Borowiecki is braced for contact and does not extend or otherwise direct his knee into Jaskin in a way that merits further discipline.
10:58 a.m.: The Nashville Predators could be about to lose a veteran defenseman for some time, as the NHL Department of Player Safety has announced that they will have a hearing with Mark Borowiecki on Sunday. The league will review Borowiecki’s kneeing penalty from Saturday night, which forced the Arizona Coyotes’ Dmitrij Jaskin from the game.
As far as suspension hearings go, this should be as close to a prima facie case as they come. Borowiecki clearly targets Jaskin with a knee-to-knee hit as the forward slows up at the red line while carrying the puck in transition (video). The referees did not miss the blatant contact, awarding Borowiecki a five-minute major and game misconduct. The Coyotes took notice as well, with Antoine Roussel jumping in to fight Borowiecki, adding another five minutes to his count. It will be hard for Borowiecki to argue that the contact was purely incidental when everyone else on the ice saw it as purposeful.
If Player Safety takes into account whether the victim of the penalty was injured and the severity of the injury, as they typically do, that could result in an even longer absence for Borowiecki. There was no question that Jaskin was hurt on the play, as he had to be helped from the ice and did not return to the game, but the initial outlook of the injury is far worse than just that. PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan relays word from Arizona head coach Andre Tourigny that Jaskin is expected to be out “really long term” as a result of the kneeing infraction. He adds that Jaskin could miss the rest of the season.
Borowiecki has been suspended three times previously in his NHL career, but not since 2018 and never for boarding. Regardless, is very likely to add a fourth to his resume today and the only real question is the length.
“The referees did not miss the blatant contact…” – after listening to games the past week, that phrase was a foreign language to most of the officiating crews. Bleep-called game after bleep-called game. Not all the attendance woes can be attributed to COVID-fear. Some of it, even if only a small part, could be due to referee belligerence refusing to properly officiate games. In this particular case, BoroCop really lost his mind. But, because G.P. has such a random methodology for dishing out discipline, it’s anybody’s guess has to what happens.
@Mac – Attendence woes you say? I can’t imagine why. ;)
As for BoroCop, the Preds have turned to goon hockey with much success of late. Broad Street Bully hockey is back! :D
@Gbear – (shocked face emoji that was deleted on upload) And, of course, GMDP is also laughing at us from the comfy chair. Mr. Uncoachable is on the score sheet almost every game, but at least the captain is back to his usual self. All is *almost* right in NSH, in spite of the quasi-rebuild. Go figure, eh?
Guess your “prima facie” was wrong. Big words don’t make articles better. Facts do.
3:34 p.m.: DoPS has decided to nullify reality and attempt to tell people with actual decent eyesight that “These aren’t the Droids you are looking for.” and “This isn’t knee-on-knee contact, it’s just two ships passing in the night…kind of like the Andrea Doria, back in the day.”
Let’s just all take a minute to admire that picture, it’s pretty sweet.