This afternoon the NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced that Philadelphia Flyers’ shitbag Radko Gudas was suspended for three games for his illegal check to the head of Senators forward Mika Zibanejad.
According to the video that accompanied their tweet:
“Tuesday night in Ottawa, Flyers defenceman Radko Gudas delivered an illegal check to the head of Senators forward Mika Zibanejad.
As the video shows, with the faceoff in the Flyers’ zone, the Senators position Zibanejad at the top of the circle as a shooting threat. When the puck drops, Gudas steps around Senator Mark Stone and immediately moves to cover Zibanejad. Senator Zack Smith wins the draw cleanly back to Zibanejad, who quickly handles the pass into a shooting position and attempts to release a shot.
As he does, Gudas lunges upward from a crouched position, raising his forearm and delivering a blow to the head of Zibanejad – dropping him to the ice.
This is an illegal check to the head.
It is important to note that Zibanejad is eligible to be checked on this play in a legal fashion, however, by lunging upward and delivering the blow with his extended forearm instead of his shoulder or chest, Gudas makes the head the main point of contact on a hit where the head was avoidable.
And while Zibanejad is low to the ice and in a shooting position, he does not materially change the position of his head just prior to or simultaneously with contact.
If Gudas wishes to deliver this check, he must do so in a way that does not make the head the main point of contact.”
Due to Gudas having no prior offences and the fact that Zibanejad was injured on the play, the Department of Player Safety settled on a three-game suspension for his actions. While justified, it doesn’t really do much to soothe the fact that all four officials on the ice blatantly missed a head shot where Zibanejad was the focus of the play. He had the puck on his stick and was in a shooting position, yet all four guys either missed it or neglected to make the appropriate call.
How the hell does that happen?
Their ineptitude contributed to the Senators losing the game. I don’t want to excuse the Senators’ poor play, but losing your second line center on an illegal check to the head when the team is down goal early in the third compounded the problems. A five-minute major and a game misconduct could have been the turning point in that game and because of it, it’s impossible to get too worked up over a suspension of a player whose absence will probably be more beneficial to the Flyers than anything else.
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