Wednesday evening in Calgary, Flames forward Connor Zary delivered a late, high hit to Canucks defenceman Elias Pettersson…
Those are the words we expect to hear in the explanation video that the NHL’s Department of Player Safety puts out when they do the right thing and suspend Connor Zary for last night’s hit on Elias Pettersson. In case you haven’t yet seen the hit in question:
And another look at Zary’s role in all of this:
Pettersson delivers a solid, clean hit to Flames forward Nazem Kadri with the goal of separating the player from the puck. Since he accomplished that, Pettersson turns his head and his body to follow the puck, completely unaware that a clean hit would lead to an altercation of any kind.
Zary changes course to jump Pettersson, leading with his forearm and appearing to make contact with the back of Pettersson’s head with his elbow. Pettersson goes down to the ice protecting his head as Zary is then engaged by Canucks forward Nils Höglander.
Zary was assessed two minutes for interference on the play, and the discipline dolled out for this reckless play certainly shouldn’t stop there.
Most of the time, a reaction or seeking retribution for a clean hit is something we can all roll our eyes at, because it usually comes down to a player skating up to the “guilty party” and grabbing their jersey, shoving them, a scrum ensuing, and the officials blowing play down before separating everyone. That’s dumb too.
But what’s even dumber is to throw an elbow or forearm at the back of an unsuspecting player’s head because you’re upset that he threw a clean hit.
And that’s exactly what Zary did. But let’s take off the Canucks-tinted glasses for a second, and really dive into how the Department of Player Safety will evaluate this play.
Typically, they will keep an eye out for these things:
  • Could the player engaging have done anything differently? (Was the play predatory?)
  • Did the player they were engaging with do anything to put themselves in a vulnerable position?
  • Does the player engaging have any history of supplemental discipline?
  • Was there an injury on the sequence?
  • Was there an appropriate consequence handed out in game?
The answers here are: Yes, No, No, Yes, No.
Zary easily could have done the prototypical jersey grab and shoves with his gloves on that we often see after clean but big hits like these in today’s NHL.
As mentioned, Pettersson is trying to separate player from puck. He’s not trying to hurt Kadri, and he’s not trying to elicit any sort of reaction from the other Flames on the ice.
Zary has never faced supplemental discipline at any point over the first 111 games of his NHL career, so that will work in his favour.
Pettersson exited with an injury and did not return, which will work against Zary.
Zary received a two minute minor, when he likely should have been assessed a game misconduct for a check to the head. If he had been booted from the game, the league might lean more towards a fine since he would have missed the majority of the game anyway. But no, it was just Pettersson who didn’t get to play the final two periods of this one.
If Zary had a previous record, he’d potentially be looking at a two or three game suspension, but given the factors laid out above, the Department of Player Safety will likely go for one game, maybe two games in this instance.
Zary’s hearing is scheduled for later today, meaning we should find out the league’s decision shortly. Let’s see if they get this one right.
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