Breaking: Early signs point to a major suspension for Nazem Kadri.

Not looking good for Kadri.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Breaking: Early signs point to a major suspension for Nazem Kadri.
Kostas Lymperopoulos/CSM/Zuma

The Toronto Maple Leafs are likely going to be without forward Nazem Kadri for what remains of the first round match up against the Boston Bruins in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs, at least that is the way that things look right at this moment.

According to an official announcement from the National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety the league has now offered Toronto Maple Leafs forward Nazem Kadri an in person hearing for his vicious crosscheck to the head of Boston Bruins forward Jake DeBrusk in the third period of Game 2. Now the National Hockey League does not usually hand out in person hearings unless they have the intention of issuing a major suspension to a player, and in fact the in person hearing is specifically reserved for situatios in which the National Hockey League wants to leave open the possibility of suspending a player for more than 5 games.

Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman shared some thoughts on the news during an intermission segment this evening:

"The league has offered Nazem Kadri an in person hearing for the crosscheck to the face of Jake DeBrusk and what that means is that the league has the option to suspend for more than 5 games. It doesn't mean they will but they have given themselves the option to do it."

Friedman believes that Kadri's history in the league is likely what is going to earn him a lengthy suspension here.

"The biggest problem with Kadri is going to be his history.... last year he got Tommy Wingels and he was suspended for three playoff games."

Surprisingly though Friedman believes that his 4 game suspension during the regular season, all the way back in 2016, will prove to be much more costly than the Wingels incident due to the fact that the incidents are so similar in nature. That incident saw Kadri involved in a battle with Detroit Red Wings forward Luke Glendenning and much like he did tonight he would eventually settle things with his stick. Looking back at the video of the NHL's ruling on the Glendenning crosscheck I must admit that I find myself agreeing with Friedman here as this looks like an extremely similar incident.

That was 4 regular season games, and that translates to 2 playoff games, and Kadri has been suspended since then including a playoff suspension for the aforementioned incident involving Wingels. All this to say, it looks really, really, bad for Nazem Kadri right now.

[pub]



Source: