Oilers forward commits blatant, illegal check to the head; suspension likely coming

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.