A Suspension Appears Likely After Referee Slashed in Bruins/Panthers Game
In a tense affair between the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers, Max Jones accidentally caught a referee with a hard slash intended for Evan Rodrigues.
In a rematch of the second round of the 2023-24 playoffs, the Bruins and Panthers were up to their old tricks on Tuesday evening. During the second period, Bruins forward Max Jones got into a tussle with Panthers' forward Evan Rodrigues and after a few words and pushes were exchanged, Jones attempted to slash his stick but hit linesman Devin Berg in the shoulder instead, leaving the official wincing in agony.
As you can see from the video, Jones was preparing to slash the stick of Rodrigues after getting into a pushing match. However, at the very last second, the Panthers forward moved out of the way, and unfortunately, Berg got in the way. Jones was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct for the accidental slash after a lengthy discussion by both referees.
While Jones wasn't given a harsher penalty or even a game misconduct, this should surely be looked at by the league and the Player Dafety department.
The grey-line here is whether or not it was deliberate as Jones did not see the linesman coming. Nevertheless it will be interesting to see how the league looks at this situation considering their patchy reputation with supplemental discipline.
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