The National Hockey League has suspended Vancouver Canucks defenceman Tyler Myers three games for the cross-check he delivered to Edmonton Oilers defenceman Evan Bouchard’s face in the dying moments of the Canucks’ win over Edmonton on Saturday night.
Connor McDavid also received a matching three-game suspension for his cross-check into Conor Garland’s face.
On Sunday, the NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced that both Myers and McDavid would have phone hearings for their actions at the end of the game. That phone hearing took place on Monday, and following practice, Myers offered his perspective on the play:
“Things were getting heated there at the end. I’m not ignorant to the fact of how it looks in real time. But if you slow it down, I did start lower and as he started to bring his hands up, it kind of redirected my stick a little higher. It’s probably a little aggressive, but it was at the end of a good hockey game. There’s other stuff going on, too. It was a good battle at the end. Like I said, I don’t want to get my stick up that high. It’s good everyone is fine.”
The Canucks defenceman has been suspended on two other occasions, both also being three-game suspensions. In March 2012, as a member of the Buffalo Sabres, Myers was suspended for boarding Scott Gomez and was given another suspension for a high hit on Daniel Zubrus. McDavid has never been suspended in his career.
Myers will miss the Canucks’ entire week of games against the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday, the Oilers on Thursday and the Washington Capitals on Saturday. McDavid will also miss the Oilers’ entire week of games. Edmonton will be without their captain against the Capitals on Tuesday, Canucks on Thursday and the Sabres on Saturday.
With the team anticipating Myers’ suspension, Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet split up his top pairing of Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek. Hughes skated on a line with recently called-up Mark Friedman, while Hronek was paired with Carson Soucy.
Both teams will be without these players for their third and final meeting between the clubs this season on Thursday in Edmonton.
