Cedric Paquette to the principal’s office…
Montreal Canadiens forward Cedric Paquette is getting called on the carpet for a hit on Anaheim’s Trevor Zegras that saw him ejected from Sunday’s game.
Paquette hit Zegras from behind midway through the first period of Sunday’s game in Anaheim. He was given a major for boarding and a game misconduct. Paquette and Ducks forward Sonny Milano also picked up matching roughing penalties for a post-hit scrum.
Zegras left the ice for evaluation, later returning to the game in the second period.
Here’s the boarding rule:
41.1 Boarding – A boarding penalty shall be imposed on any player who checks or pushes a defenseless opponent in such a manner that
causes the opponent to hit or impact the boards violently or dangerously. The severity of the penalty, based upon the impact with
the boards, shall be at the discretion of the Referee.
There is an enormous amount of judgment involved in the application of this rule by the Referees. The onus is on the player applying the check to ensure his opponent is not in a defenseless position and if so, he must avoid or minimize contact. However, in determining whether such contact could have been avoided, the circumstances of the check, including whether the opponent put himself in a vulnerable position immediately prior to or simultaneously with the check or whether the check was unavoidable can be considered. This balance must be considered by the Referees when applying this rule.
41.2 Minor Penalty – The Referee, at his discretion, may assess a minor penalty, based on the degree of violence of the impact with the boards, to a player guilty of boarding an opponent.
41.3 Major Penalty – The Referee, at his discretion, may assess a major penalty, based on the degree of violence of the impact with the boards, to a player guilty of boarding an opponent. When a major penalty is imposed under this rule for a foul resulting in an injury to the face or head of an opponent, a game misconduct shall be imposed.
41.4 Match Penalty – The Referee, at his discretion, may assess a match penalty if, in his judgment, the player attempted to or deliberately injured his opponent by boarding.
Paquette was suspended one game for boarding Boston’s Torey Krug in 2017. He was also fined for a high sticking incident during the 2019 preseason. While that does not make him a repeat offender by CBA standards for the purposes of lost salary calculations, the NHL’s Department of Player Safety does consider a player’s entire disciplinary history when determining suspension length.
Referees for the game were Chris Rooney and Steve Kozari; linesmen were Vaughan Rody and Julien Fournier.
