Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman has been suspended for two games for tripping Alex DeBrincat of the Detroit Red Wings. 

The dangerous play came at 7:51 of the third period of Sunday’s game. No penalty was called for the trip. 

 

 

From the NHL’s Department of Player Safety:

Hartman pursues the puck carrier with DeBrincat in front of him. As he approaches DeBrincat, Hartman bends his left knee, lowering his body, extends his right leg, and sweeps it forward from behind DeBrincat, intentionally knocking his skates out from under him and causing him to fall backwards. This is tripping.

It is important to note that Hartman has time and space to take a different angle down the boards and pursuing the puck that does not put him on course to collide with DeBrincat. Instead, he chooses to approach DeBrincat from behind and, while reaching for the puck, sweeps both of his feet causing a dangerous backwards fall to the ice that gives DeBrincat little ability to defend or protect himself.

What causes this play to rise to the level of supplemental discipline is the intentional nature of this action combined with a disciplinary history of related incidents, having been fined twice for slewfooting or tripping his opponents.

Tripping?  Perhaps…  but it sure looked like a slew-foot.  The NHL defines slew-footing in Rule 52:
 
Slew-footing is the act of a player using his leg or foot to knock or kick an opponent’s feet from under him, or pushes an opponent’s upper body backward with an arm or elbow, and at the same time with a forward motion of his leg, knocks or kicks the opponent’s feet from under him, causing him to fall violently to the ice.
 
Any player who is guilty of slew-footing shall be assessed a match penalty.
 
This isn’t Hartman’s first time going before the court of Player Safety. The Wild forward has been suspended twice and fined six times. His most recent disciplinary action came seven months ago when he was suspended one game for interference in April. 
 
As a result, Hartman is considered a repeat offender for the purposes of calculating lost salary.  He forfeits $41,463.42 as a result of the suspension. 
 
The Red Wings defeated the Wild 4-1. Officials for the game were referees TJ Luxmore (#21) and Brandon Schrader (#34) with linesmen James Tobias (#61) and Travis Toomey (#90).