Breaking: Jack Eichel fires back at NHL Player Safety!

The National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety had a busy day on Sunday, suspending both Philadelphia Flyers star forward Jakub Voracek and Buffalo Sabres star forward Jack Eichel within just minutes of one another. The NHL's supplementary discipline has been a constant subject of criticism in recent years and Sunday proved to be no different.

Philadelphia's Jakub Voracek wasted very little time in providing a simple but scathing response to his own suspension yesterday but Eichel on the other hand had opted to remain silent. That is at least until now as Eichel has now responded with some criticism of his own regarding his suspension but unlike Voracek he has gone into great detail to explain why he feels the National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety made the wrong call on this one.

Eichel began by explaining how he felt his hit on Colorado Avalanche veteran Carl Soderberg did not rise to the level of a suspension.

"Well, it's though," began Eichel as per Sabres insider John Vogl. "Obviously. you don't want to miss two games with the team. I mean. it's the league's decision. Obviously, we have to stand by it, but I don't agree with it. Obviously, if you look at the hit and you look at their rule book, I just didn't think that it matched up.  That's not an illegal hit. Like, I don't move myself to lower into him. If you watch the hit,m he actually is at fault for dropping his head down there. I mean, it's a 50-50 puck that I'm trying to make a hockey play on. I mean, you see m. I have my eyes on the puck the whole time, and I actually make a play on the puck after."

Eichel would then go on to criticize the apparent inconsistency of the National Hockey League's rulings on these matters, a tremendous source of frustration for fans around the league as well.

"I don't know. It's kind of frustrating. If there's going to to have a rule about head shots, it has to be pretty black and white. I mean, if all head shots are suspendable, suspend all head shots. But it's though to see them picking and choosing what they feel is suspendable, but it's a decision you have to live with."

Overall though it's clear that Eichel is not only unhappy with this decision, he has been very frustrated by it as well.

"If you watch it, it's a 50-50 puck that I'm trying to make a play on. My hit's not suspendable by their rule book. He puts himself in a vulnerable position, leans over. If you actually watch the hit, his head goes off my back. His head's on my number. So it's tough. It's frustrating."

"It's a physical game and things happen really fast out there. You're constantly required to make split  second decisions. That one, I'm bracing myself thinking contact's coming, and he tries to poke it around me and go to the inside, and his head goes off my back."

Do you agree with Eichel? Here's how the NHL saw it:

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