NHL disciplinarian may have had a brief respite earlier this month, but the league’s players are doing their best to ensure his job security lately. In the latest reviewable offense, Rangers forward Andre Deveaux delivered a headshot to Florida’s dynamic forward Tomas Fleischmann during Florida’s 2-1 victory over New York.
Deveaux received a five-minute major and a game misconduct for an intentional hit to the head. Meanwhile, Tomas Fleischmann went to the locker room and missed the entire five-minute power play, but returned before the second period ended. The most important thing is that Fleischmann looks like he may have escaped serious injury: but it originally looked like it could be much worse.
It wasn’t just the dirty play, but it was unfortunate that Deveaux decided to deck Fleischmann. He had just set up a beautiful goal earlier in the second period when he deked around Artem Anisimov and dished the puck to a loaded Kris Versteeg. No surprise there: the Versteeg/Fleischmann/Weiss line has been one of the best trios in the entire league this season. No one every wants to see an injury—and the league has had enough of their highly skilled players laid out by “lesser” talented players.
After the game, Rangers coach John Tortorella didn’t have much to add: “It’s not up to me. It’s a penalty. It’s not up to me what happens from there.”
No, it’s up to Brendan Shanahan. Principle point of contact was the head? Check. Elbow to the head? Check. Suspension? Pending. Deveaux might be out for a while. Check it out for yourself and let us know what you think in the comments.