Toronto Maple Leafs winger Ryan Reaves was given a match penalty and ejected from Saturday night’s game against Edmonton for an illegal check to the head of Oilers defenseman Ryan Reaves. 

Reaves delivered a high hit behind the Oilers’ net, driving his shoulder into Nurse’s head.  The Oilers blueliner was bloodied on the play. He was helped off the ice by the medical staff and did not return to the game. 

 

 

Referees Chris Rooney and Garrett Rank reviewed the play, confirming their initial call of a match penalty for Illegal Check to the Head, under 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.

 

Reaves has been suspended three times, most recently missing two games of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs for punching Colorado Avalanche defenseman Ryan Graves in the head, slamming him to the ice, pushing his head into the ice, and ripping out his hair. During the 2020 playoffs, Reaves picked up a match penalty and one-game ban for an illegal check to the head; referee Chris Rooney, who worked tonight’s game, made the call in that one.  His first suspension came for boarding back in 2016, when he was a member of the St. Louis Blues.

 

Referees for the game were Chris Rooney (#5) and Garrett Rank (#7); linespersons were Steve Barton (#59) and Shandor Alphonso (#52).