Nils Hoglander ejected for dropping Grigori Denisenk with an elbow to the head at the World Juniors.

Boy oh boy given the harsh suspensions we have seen from the International Ice Hockey Federation in this tournament for relatively harmless looking blows to the head, you have to wonder what the future might hold for Sweden's Nils Hoglander after this incident. 

On Saturday Hoglander and Team Sweden faced off against the Russians in what has proven to be a rather wild affair between the two squads. The game has not only proven to be a relatively high scoring match up, but we have witnessed a level of physicality in this game that is simply not commonplace at the World Junior Championships. Things have gotten so physical in fact that I think you would be hard pressed to argue that either side has played a good, clean, game of hockey here today. That being said I feel for the Russians here a little because it is quite clear that the spark for all this physicality was created by Hoglander in the opening minutes of the game. 

Hoglander, team Sweden's leading scorer in the tournament up until this point, delivered what can only be described as a dirty looking elbow to the head of Russia's Grigory Denisenko just roughly 4 minutes into the opening period. As you would expect the elbow left Denisenko in a bad way down on the ice, it also resulted in a 5 minute major and a game misconduct for Hoglander who was promptly shown the door. To be clear Hoglander did not go seeking Denisenko, instead it was Denisenko who came at Hoglander in an attempt to deliver a body check, but you simply can not respond to that kind of aggression by raising your elbow into your opponent's face as he closes the distance. 

A big topic of conversation coming out of this incident is going to be the discussion around how Denisenko's injury was handled by the Russians today. Denisenko was clearly rocked by the elbow and based on his body language after the hit I think it is fair to suggest that the blow he took here from Hoglander was a significant shot to the head. In spite of that Denisenko was only given an ice pack to the back of the neck before being sent back out onto the ice for another shift. Some like TSN insider Bob McKenzie have already expressed serious concern over the incident.