Oilers forward commits blatant, illegal check to the head; suspension likely coming
Early on this season, the NHL's Department of Player Safety seem to be a little bit busier than usual, dolling out a handful of suspensions already though the first 15 games of the season. Now it looks like we may have one more suspension incoming.
During a meeting between the Edmonton Oilers and Seattle Kraken on Wednesday evening, Oilers forward Adam Erne caught Kraken forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare with a lunging elbow straight to the face during the 3rd period. You simply can't do that.
Bellemare was down for a few moments after the hit to collect himself and Erne was assessed a penalty for an illegal check to the head, but rather than the penalty being a 5-minute major or a game misconduct, Erne's infraction was just a 2-minute minor.
There is a lot of speculation that a hearing with the Department of Player Safety is coming, but as far as the length of a possible suspension, that's up for debate. We saw a couple of very deliberate head shots earn 4-game suspensions this year, most notably the Charlie McAvoy hit on Oliver Ekman-Larsson. We've also seen a some lesser suspensions handed out for head shots, such as the two-game suspension that Connor Clifton earned for his head shot on Devils captain Nico Hischier.
| POLL | ||
NOVEMBRE 16 | 136 ANSWERS Oilers forward commits blatant, illegal check to the head; suspension likely coming How many games will Adam Erne get for his blatant head shot on Pierre-Edouard Bellemare? | ||
| 2 games or less | 48 | 35.3 % |
| 3 games | 45 | 33.1 % |
| 4 games or more | 43 | 31.6 % |
| List of polls | ||
