Breaking: Veteran forward facing suspension after big hit on Sunday night.

NHL veteran looking at several games.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Breaking: Veteran forward facing suspension after big hit on Sunday night.
Keystone Press

The Ottawa Senators were not happy about the call on the ice and they are going to be even less happy when they hear this news. 

According to an official report from the National Hockey League's department of player safety, Ottawa Senators defenseman Mark Borowiecki will have a hearing for his hit to Las Vegas Golden Knights forward Cody Eakin. It sounds like the National Hockey League intends to move quickly on this one as Borowiecki's hearing has been scheduled for later today. 

I must admit I did not feel that this hit from Borowiecki would rise to the level of a suspension, in part because I do not believe he intended to make the head the primary point of contact and also due to the fact that he was ejected from the game on Sunday night as well. The play developed very quickly in the Golden Knights zone and it was a turnover from the Senators that resulted in Eakin having the puck. Eakin then turned to make ap lay up ice and had his head way down as he did so, although there's no question that Borowiecki did in fact make contract with Eakin's head on the play.

It's worth noting that there has been no indication that this will be an in person hearing and given the short turnaround before the hearing later today I think it's safe to say this one will be over the phone. Given the circumstances of the play as well as the fact that Eakin already received a game for his actions, I do not expect that he will be on the receiving end of an extensive suspension.

There are however some mitigating circumstances here that could result in Borowiecki serving some extra time however, and that's going to be bad news for the Ottawa Senators. It was only just 5 days ago that Borowiecki was given a one game suspension for an elbow to the head of Boston Bruins' defenseman Urho Vaakanainen, a play that looked considerably more deliberate and considerably more vicious than the hit on Eakin in my estimation. 

I suspect that this means he will receive a bare minimum of two games and we could see that go even higher given the short time frame between this infranction and his previous suspension.

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