NHL needs to come down hard on Nyquist
It’s not about the damage done, but the inherent danger, Mike Zeisberger writes.
How many games constitutes a worthy suspension for pitchforking an opponent close to his eye? Detroit Red Wings forward Gustav Nyquist is about to find out.
The onus is on the NHL’s department of player safety to be firm in its ruling on Nyquist, whose spear to the face of Minnesota Wild forward Jared Spurgeon on Sunday needs to be addressed with a multiple-game suspension.
Less than three hours after the game’s end, the NHL department’s Twitter account announced Nyquist had been “offered an in-person hearing for high-sticking Minnesota’s Jared Spurgeon. Date and time TBD.”
Yes, Spurgeon cross-checked Nyquist from behind with five minutes left in the first period of the Wild-Red Wings contest in St. Paul, Minn. But that didn’t warrant Nyquist turning around and thrusting the tip of his stick blade into Spurgeon’s face.
Nyquist was assessed a double minor for high-sticking on the play. That he wasn’t ejected from the game is head-scratching.
Some will argue Spurgeon wasn’t seriously injured, given that he returned to the game after being patched up. But the handful of stitches to the left of his nose were clear evidence he was centimetres away from having his eye gouged.
“I’m sure the league will do something. I’m just happy (the high stick) wasn’t higher,” Spurgeon told reporters after the Wild defeated the Wings 6-3.
Nyquist told reporters after the game he “had no intention of doing that. My stick gets caught. It looks bad, but I’m happy he’s OK.”
Nyquist has never been suspended in his NHL career, but that spotless record should end here. The fact that he committed such a violent act on national television south of the border — the game was broadcast coast-tocoast in the U.S. on NBC — makes the optics almost as bad as the spear itself.