The NHL Department of Player Safety has suspended Flames forward two games for elbowing Vancouver Canucks defenceman Elias Pettersson. The incident took place in the first period of the Canucks’ shootout victory over the Flames, when Pettersson threw a big but legal check to Flames forward Nazem Kadri.
Zary extended his forearm and followed through on the back of Pettersson’s head, knocking the young blueliner down to the ice. Pettersson did not appear for the second or third period.
Here is what the league said about the hit in their explanation video, which you can watch by clicking here.
“Wednesday night in Calgary, Flames forward Connor Zary was penalized for extending his elbow to deliver a late, high retaliatory hit against Canucks defenceman Elias Pettersson. As the video shows, the Flames skate the puck through the neutral zone, with Pettersson defending and Zary on the rush in support. The puck is flipped towards the net, and Pettersson finishes a clean, hard check on the Flames player. Then, after the hit and disregarding the rest of the play, Zary tracks Pettersson, raises his elbow and forearm, and elevates upward into a check, striking Pettersson with the extended arm and making significant contact with Pettersson’s head.“This is elbowing. It is important to note that this is not a case where a player’s sudden movements cause a hitter to reflexively extend an elbow in a way that turns a legal hit into an illegal one. On this play, Zary sees a teammate takes a hard but legal check, and responds intentionally in retribution by delivering a hit with his extended elbow that makes significant head contact and is delivered with requisite force for supplemental discipline. To summarize, this is elbowing. Zary has been neither fined nor suspended previously in his 112 game NHL career. The Department of Player Safety has suspended Connor Zary for two games.”
As we wrote about this morning, the league made the correct call in suspending Zary.
Zary, 23, will forfeit $8,993.06 in salary as a result of the suspension, with the money going to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
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