Montreal Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher will have a hearing with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety for a hit that got him ejected from Thursday’s game against the New York Islanders.
Gallagher delivered the illegal hit at 11:52 of the third period, with Montreal leading 3-1. As Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech carried the puck up ice, Gallagher – moving laterally across the neutral zone – extended his elbow up and into Pelech’s head. The Isles’ blueliner remained down on the ice for some time before being helped off by the team’s medical staff.
Referees Francois St. Laurent and Jon McIsaac called a match penalty on the ice for an Illegal Check to the Head, which is defined in Rule 48:
A hit resulting in contact with an opponent’s head where the head was the main point of contact and such contact to the head was avoidable is not permitted.
In determining whether contact with an opponent’s head was avoidable, the circumstances of the hit including the following shall be considered:
(i) Whether the player attempted to hit squarely through the opponent’s body and the head was not “picked” as a result of poor timing, poor angle of approach, or unnecessary extension of the body upward or outward.
(ii) Whether the opponent put himself in a vulnerable position by assuming a posture that made head contact on an otherwise full body check unavoidable.
(iii) Whether the opponent materially changed the position of his body or head immediately prior to or simultaneously with the hit in a way that significantly contributed to the head contact.
The Referee, at his discretion, may assess a match penalty if, in his judgment, the player attempted to or deliberately injured his opponent with an illegal check to the head.
The onus here is on Gallagher to deliver a legal body check. Rather than choose an angle of attack that would result in a hit through Pelech’s core, Gallagher extends his arm, raising his elbow and driving it into Pelech’s head. The head is clearly the main point of contact on this very dangerous hit.
The officials then reviewed the hit, as required under Rule 21.5:
Referees shall review all plays that result in the assessment of any Match Penalty for the purpose of confirming (or modifying) their original call on the ice.
Such reviews will be conducted exclusively by the Referee(s) on the ice in consultation with other On-Ice Official(s), as appropriate, using the technology (for example, a handheld tablet or a television or computer monitor) specified in and provided pursuant to Rule 38.5.
Communication between the Situation Room and the On-Ice Officials shall be limited to contact between the appropriate Game Logger in the Situation Room and the Referee to ensure the Referee is receiving any and all video they might request, as well as the appropriate replay angles they may need to review the penalty call. There shall be no other contact or consultation between the On-Ice Official(s) and the NHL Situation Room, or with any other non-game participant.
The Referee shall have the following options following such review: (i) confirming his original Match Penalty call; or (ii) reducing his original Match Penalty call to a lesser penalty for the same infraction.
St. Laurent and McIsaac confirmed their inital call on the ice. Match penalty to Gallagher for an illegal check to the head. His night was over. The Islanders, trailing by two, would get a five-minute power play.
The NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced on Friday that Gallagher would have a phone hearing for the hit, indicating that the suspension would be five games or less. Suspension lengths of six games or more require that players be offered an in-person hearing.
“I think we all saw what happened and I’m sure the league’s going to review the hit,” said newly-appointed Islanders coach Patrick Roy, behind the bench for just his third game with the Isles. “That’s all I can say for now.”
While Gallagher has never been suspended, he has been fined for sucker-punching New York Rangers forward Barclay Goodrow. Player Safety will consider a player’s entire history – including penalties and unpenalized dangerous hits – when calculating suspension length.
Given that we already know he’ll be capped at five games, here’s hoping he gets all five.
The Islanders scored twice on the ensuing power play, tying the game — only to have Montreal’s Sean Monahan score the game winner just over a minute after things were tied at three apiece.
The Montreal Canadiens won the game 4-3 over the New York Islanders. Referees were Francois St. Laurent (#8) and Jon McIsaac (#2), with linesmen Steve Barton (#59) and Tommy Hughes (#65).
