The NHL Department of Player Safety announced on social media today that Los Angeles Kings forward Arthur Kaliyev has been suspended for two preseason games and two regular-season games.
This suspension comes after news broke yesterday that Kaliyev would have a disciplinary hearing for his hit on Anaheim Ducks forward Chase De Leo. While an in-person hearing is not confirmation of any suspension to come, it is typically an indication that a player’s action warrants consideration for serious disciplinary action.
That’s exactly what’s come for Kaliyev, who will now have to sit out the Kings’ first two regular-season games assuming he makes their opening-night roster. Kaliyev’s kneeing on De Leo resulted in just a minor penalty at the time for Kaliyev, but knocked De Leo out of the game.
The play in question began when Kaliyev found himself on the wrong end of a hard check from Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas. Kaliyev popped up from the hit, accelerated, and attempted to lay a major check in response to De Leo, who was carrying the puck out of the Ducks’ zone. De Leo attempted to avoid Kaliyev’s check, and in response to De Leo’s evasive action Kaliyev extended his knee forward in order to ensure contact with De Leo would be made. The result was hard knee-on-knee contact.
The Department of Player Safety specifically noted Kaliyev’s kneeing did not come as the result of a sudden, unavoidable movement by De Leo, but instead was something Kaliyev could have and should have refrained from attempting. The Department of Player Safety also noted that De Leo suffered an injury on the play and that Kaliyev has been fined once already in his NHL career.
A two-game suspension for the regular season won’t come at a major cost for the Kings, who have quite a few quality scoring forwards already on their roster. But seeing as Kaliyev did manage 13 goals and 28 points in just 56 games last season, respectable production, not having Kaliyev in the lineup will still likely make things a little more difficult for Los Angeles for those two contests.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Lifetime Kings fan here (since Butch Goring’s days here).
Any intent to injure needs to be penalized heavily. I support the suspension.
Please, NHL, hold stars to the same standards
“I learned from the best – Cookie & Ulfie!”
— Arthur K.
P.S. Cookie & Ulfie never mentioned this part, though…
BS, he didn’t lead with the knee. Skated in with his legs wide and delivered the hit. Both players are responsible! Hope he appeals it!
Lol there’s always one biased fan of the offender that attempts to defend it. He didn’t deliver the hit. He quite literally appears to have only made contact with the knee.
Are you that biased fan? I watched it a few times! The knees did hit, Still don’t see him purposely sticking it out. Maybe a 1 game suspension at most, If not for the injury!
Quit crying about your lost Cup! Claude Lemieux was the supreme Dbag!
Art shoulda asked that dude for a fight after getting trollied but instead…. he flies up the ice and knees someone..
What a bonehead.
Deserved 4-games for not handling it the ‘old way’ and now costing his team a roster spot for four contests.
#GoKings (without Kaliyev)
Costing himself. Opened the door for Lafferiere to make an impression. You never know.
Guess he’s been watching old Dbag Brown tapes…
Oh stop. Just because brownie hit hard didn’t mean he was dirty.
Yawn. There are hours of dirty hits on YouTube including multiple knee on knee contacts. Go educated yourself. Multiple game misconducts, fines and suspensions prove you are wrong – it’s not even up for debate.
I’ll give you a parallel to help you get past your bias. Yes, Scott Stevens hit hard. Yes, Scott Stevens hit dirty. Yes, I still have homer love for Scott Stevens.
There, now you have a blue print for embracing reality.
Either that or start a Trouba for Lady Byng campaign.
D- for that lackluster contribution. Why bother.
He wasn’t dirty by NHL standards. Because he hit so often he does have a larger number of questionable hits than most players. And he sure took a lot of pride in his style of play
Still not a dirty player. Not like a Tom Wilson or that ilk. I never saw brown linger behind a play to sucker punch anyone when the refs weren’t watching.
His hits were in the line of play. Always going north-south. A limited skills player who had to hit a lot to stay in the league.
McDavid vs todays rules is a dirtier player than brown vs the rules of his day. (IMO).
What? Okay you must have watched every game and noticed things I did not. Or you’re much younger than I am (60). I wouldn’t have called Stevens dirty. I would have called him mean and coarse and intentionally agitating. But FIGHTS were normal back then so the hits were thought of differently too.
The dirtiest is the knee to knee. If he did that a lot I just missed it.
He wasn’t a grub like Marchand or Wilson like you say. Just threw illegal checks to the head and charged a lot but the refs let those things roll in those days. They sure weren’t all clean checks which is what I meant by dirty. Stevens was tough as nails and wouldn’t throw cheapshots.
Brown had more knee on knee situations than i care to remember. Stevens didn’t. But hits like the one on Kariya marr Stevens legacy and for good reason. He benefitted from a lack of DoPS back in the day and a lack of understanding of brain injuries. 95%+ of his hits were clean but when you hit 10-20 times a game a couple of dirty ones are gunna be in there.
These days when a hit isn’t lining up most pull out which is good. Personally I felt that when Brown missed his hits he regularly threw legs out to ensure contact which is why I don’t have a great view of him.
Quit crying about your lost Cup! Claude Lemieux was the Supreme Dbag!
56 years, 2 cups.
41 years, 3 cups.
You lost me somewhere in there.
Yes, Claude was a pest.