No Supplementary Discipline For Gryba

In last night’s important 5-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets, Eric Gryba was handed a match penalty and game misconduct with 11:56 left on the clock in the second period for his hard hit on Blue Jackets center Artem Anisimov.

After his drop pass that left the puck in close proximity to his feet, Anisimov left himself vulnerable to a hit. There’s no question that Gryba squared him up with his shoulder and targeted the center of Anisimov’s body. It never looked, at least from my viewing of the footage, that the head was the principle point of contact, but Anisimov was shaken up enough to leave the game and it did look like Gryba exploded upwards and finished high with his forearm, which is something that the league generally has a history of frowning upon.

Following his hit on Lars Eller in the first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs, Gryba was given a two-game suspension for an illegal check to the head. So with that in mind, these factors all led to uncertainty as to whether Gryba would be subject to further discipline from the league.

Apparently that won’t be happening however.

No further discipline for #Sens Gryba as #NHL feels hit on #CBJ Anisimov didn’t target the head.

— Nick Kypreos (@RealKyper) October 29, 2014

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Considering Mark Borowiecki left last night’s game in the third period following a hit by Corey Tropp, the prospect of a Gryba suspension meant that the Senators might be forced to put Patrick Wiercioch back in the lineup on his off-side or promote a right defenceman from Binghamton to replace Gryba on the third pairing.

With Gryba avoiding suspension, the Senators can avoid having to do that. Although, if Borowiecki is still feeling the effects from that Tropp hit, maybe Wiercioch draws back into the lineup anyway.