The Jets' Mark Scheifele called his four-game suspension for his hit to the head of Canadiens forward Jake Evans in Game 1 of the North Division final "excessive," but said he would not appeal the ruling.
"I wasn't expecting that. I was pretty shocked," Scheifele said on Friday. "But that's their decision... I can handle the punishment, I can accept the accountability. I don't want to be a distraction to this team. It's Game 2 of the playoffs (second round) tonight, I'm going to accept the punishment."
Scheifele will miss Game 2 Friday, Games 3 and 4 in Montreal on Sunday and Monday, and Game 5 (if necessary) on June 9 back in Winnipeg.
Jets coach Paul Maurice agreed with Scheifele that the punishment was excessive.
"I was probably resigned to the fact, whether I liked it or not, that he was going to get two games. I'd mentally got myself to that. I think four is excessive," said Maurice. "The Department of Player Safety has every right, and they're needed in their role, to set precedent for hits, especially when there's an injury involved. So they have that right. I don't agree with it."
The NHL department of player safety announced the punishment Thursday after a telephone hearing with Scheifele. In a video explaining the punishment, the league noted Scheifele did not try to play the puck, saying, "It is apparent to our department that his intention on this play is to deliver a hard, violent check to an opponent, with the outcome of both the play and the game already having been decided."
"When a player approaches a player like yesterday and doesn't try to get his stick on the puck, that's an indication of the intent, to me," Montreal head coach Dominique Ducharme said Thursday.
But Scheifele said that there was no malicious intent on his part and that he was making a hockey play.
"My intention on that play is to try to negate a goal," said Scheifele. "I don't go in with a frame of mind of injuring a hockey player. My record precedes itself. I think I've had not one charging penalty in 600 games. My thought process there is to cut him off at that post."
Evans, 25, was stretchered off the ice in the final minute of Montreal's 5-3 win Wednesday after he was hit high by Scheifele while Evans was scoring a wrap-around goal into an empty net. The Jets center was given a five-minute major for charging and a game misconduct.
Ducharme said Thursday morning that Evans had a concussion and was out indefinitely, but that he was improving and avoided a trip to the hospital. Ducharme and Canadiens teammates criticized Scheifele's hit.
"It's brutal. It didn't need to happen. It's the wrong play. He knows better," Canadiens winger Brendan Gallagher said after Wednesday's game. Defenseman Joel Edmundson agreed, calling it a dirty hit.
"If he (Scheifele) gets back in the series, we're going to make his life miserable," Edmundson said Wednesday.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMib2h0dHBzOi8vdGhlYXRobGV0aWMuY29tL25ld3MvamV0cy1tYXJrLXNjaGVpZmVsZS00LWdhbWUtc3VzcGVuc2lvbi1mb3ItaGl0LW9uLWpha2UtZXZhbnMtZXhjZXNzaXZlL2czOGZlUlZZd1hVS9IBdWh0dHBzOi8vdGhlYXRobGV0aWMuY29tL25ld3MvamV0cy1tYXJrLXNjaGVpZmVsZS00LWdhbWUtc3VzcGVuc2lvbi1mb3ItaGl0LW9uLWpha2UtZXZhbnMtZXhjZXNzaXZlL2czOGZlUlZZd1hVSz9hbXA9MQ?oc=5
2021-06-04 19:42:28Z
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