Morgan Rielly injures Brayden Point and all hell breaks loose in Game 3
During the third period of a 3-2 game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night, all hell broke loose after Morgan Rielly and Brayden Point were in a puck race that resulted in Rielly initiating some contact with Point, sending him crashing into the board and coming away injured.
Initially, there was no arm up from the officials on the play, but when a line brawl broke out, after the dust had settled, the call on the ice was a 5-minute major on Rielly for boarding. Once the review had taken place, the official made the call that there would be no penalty on the play, which caused the Lightning fans in the building to erupt in a chorus of boos.
The reason for the initial 5-minute major was because the play itself was not reviewable without a player being assessed a 5-minute major. Once the officials discussed it and assessed the major penalty, it was then about doing the review to ensure that they got the call right. In this case, they decided that it was incidental contact from Rielly and Point racing for the puck that had caused Point to crash into the boards, rather than anything Rielly did intentionally.
The league can still opt to review the play to have Player Safety determine whether or not there was any ill intent on Rielly's part. I'd imagine that nothing will come from this one because it didn't look as though Rielly had any intention of trying to hurt Point on the play. It was just an unfortunate outcome more than anything else.
| POLL | ||
AVRIL 22 | 640 ANSWERS Morgan Rielly injures Brayden Point and all hell breaks loose in Game 3 Will Rielly be suspended for this incident involving Brayden Point? | ||
| Yes | 71 | 11.1 % |
| No | 569 | 88.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
