With just under three minutes to play in the third period, Konecny was leaving the Devils' zone, skated over to Devils defenseman Brendan Smith as he was going to change and delivered a hard cross-check to his arm. Smith did not like the cross-check one bit and delivered a vicious slash to the arm of Konecny in retaliation. As you can see in the video, the slash from Smith was almost a baseball swing.
Smith received a 2-minute minor for slashing on the play, but will now have a hearing with the NHL's Department of Player Safety for his retaliatory play. Last season, Smith was fined $2K for an elbow to the head of Boston's David Pastrnak and was previously suspended in 2011 for 8 games for an illegal check to the head of Chicago's Ben Smith. A former first-round pick of the Detroit Red Wings, Smith has skated in 652 career NHL games with the Wings, New York Rangers, Carolina Hurricanes and New Jersey Devils, amassing 125 points and 725 penalty minutes.
POLL | ||
1 DECEMBRE | 263 ANSWERS Devils defenceman delivers violent slash on Flyers winger, set to have a hearing with Player Safety How many games will Smith get? | ||
1-2 | 88 | 33.5 % |
3-4 | 109 | 41.4 % |
5+ | 66 | 25.1 % |
List of polls |