Breaking: Zach Hyman to face discipline for hit on Charlie McAvoy.

The National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety took a long time to review this one but it sounds like we are headed for another suspension.

On Saturday night the Boston Bruins were facing off against the Toronto Maple Leafs in what was a big game for the Bruins who desperately needed to make up ground in the standings, specifically when it comes to the teams ahead of them in the Atlantic Division. The Maple Leafs are one of those teams and in spite of already being banged up, and losing young forward Jake DeBrusk earlier during the day on game day, the Bruins came out of the match up with a very strong 6 - 2 victory over a Leafs team that is being viewed as a serious Stanley Cup contender.

That being said though as good as the win must have felt for the Bruins at the time it probably felt equally as bad for the Maple Leafs and towards the end of the game veteran forward Zach Hyman was clearly showing signed of that frustration. With the game very much out of reach, the Leafs were already down by 4 goals at the time, Hyman delivered a late hit to Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy, the kind of hit that had everyone in Boston holding their breath as they hoped that McAvoy would be ok. 

The hit was dangerously close to the end boards and it appeared to come too long after McAvoy had already release the puck on his stick, although there has been some back and forth on whether or not the hit was all that late. The end result however was that McAvoy fell over backwards onto the ice and it appeared as if the back of his head had absorbed some of that impact, a huge cause for concern when he was slow to get up. McAvoy was in his first game back from a significant concussion and it was for that reason that so many were concerned about his health following the Hyman hit. 

Although McAvoy did leave the game following the hit, he would eventually return to the Bruins bench which is a great sign for the Bruins. Now that the NHL has announced a hearing today for Hyman it sounds like there will be additional justice handed out, but what form that takes or how long or expensive it may be is anyone's guess at this time.

[pub]