KANE SUSPENDED ONE GAME FOR HIT ON KADRI
Veteran Avalanche forward may have broken thumb after hitting boards
It's always all hands on deck in the NHL playoffs, but we won't be seeing Evander Kane or Nazem Kadri in Game 4 on Monday.
Edmonton Oilers winger Kane was suspended for the game after shoving Kadri into the end boards a minute into Saturday's Game 3. He got a major penalty at the time but the NHL'S player safety people saw the hit with more severity than refs Wes Mccauley and Eric Furlatt. He had a hearing Sunday and they ruled he would have to sit out Game 4.
Considering Kane has 13 goals in the playoffs and fellow top 6 forward Kailer Yamamoto (concussion) is also out after a Game 2 Gabriel Landeskog hit, it's a double-whammy.
Kadri may have a broken right thumb after he put his hand up to try to slow down his momentum into the end boards.
Kadri, who set up the first three Avalanche goals in Game 2 in Denver, left Rogers Place wearing a soft cast, and when he'll return is unknown.
Certainly, he won't return for the rest of the series against the Oilers. The Avs may play Mikko Rantanen at centre for Game 4 after he was used there when Nathan Mackinnon and Kadri were hurt during the season.
“This is not a situation where Kadri puts himself in a vulnerable position where he turns a legal hit into an illegal one,” said the player safety department. “We acknowledge Kane's argument that Kadri loses his footing but this is a direct result of the shove.”
“Unfortunately, Nazem got hurt. So let's start with that,” said Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft. “So I wish him the best. We've seen that play, that type of hockey play occurs during the playoffs. It's unfortunate he lost his balance and Nazem was injured. But for me, we did a good job killing that five-minute penalty.”
Woodcroft still feels Mackinnon got away with a foul on Oilers star Leon Draisaitl near the benches when Draisaitl, playing with a sprained ankle, limped down the runway but later returned. Draisaitl is playing at about 50 per cent his normal dominance.
“You asked me the question about that play last night, I thought it was a slewfoot. That's my opinion,” said Woodcroft, who didn't get the same support from the NHL. Nothing more for Mackinnon, who has been fined once before but never suspended.
TURN OF EVENTS
Seconds after defenceman Evan Bouchard hit iron on an Oilers power-play shot in the third of Game 3, J.T. Compher roared out of the penalty box, pushed Bouchard off the puck and scored on Mike Smith.
It appeared Bouchard may have been surprised by Compher or took the wrong path to the checking assignment and got shoved into the boards.
“I think Evan was quite clear what the time of the clock was, and that was one of those plays that those things happen in hockey. As I said, you go from hitting the post at one end, to a few seconds later to taking it out of your net. That stuff happens in hockey and that was the play that decided the game, for sure,” said Woodcroft.
THE HARDER THEY FALL
Nobody wants to see people hurt as Kadri clearly was, or Yamamoto after the Landeskog hit, but the playoffs are a violent time. Are there are lines crossed and blurred with the importance of the games as you get nearer the Cup final?
“You hope not, but certainly the speed of the game, things can happen. Guys aren't going to shy away from confrontation, even in some dangerous areas because every play is so important. You're going to see some things happen. Injuries are part of the game,” said Avs coach Jared Bednar.
“We lost a guy (Samuel Girard, broken sternum off a hit from
St. Louis's Ivan Barbashev) to a clean hit and it can happen. You're playing hard, you're certainly not going to give an inch to the guys in areas where there are puck battles, but you're hoping guys are still respectful of the game and their opponents.”
FRIENDS AND FOES
Once upon a time, Zach Hyman played on the same University of Michigan team with Compher, who stuck the knife into the Edmonton Oilers' playoff hopes and twisted it with his third-period winner in Game 3.
“I was two years older, so I played my junior and senior years with him. We didn't really play on the same line. He played in my senior year with Andrew Copp and Tyler Motte, both on New York now,” said Hyman.
“He was a great player in college and he's a great player now in the NHL. Just his feistiness — that was something that was apparent in college and he's carried it through here. Just work ethic and his 200-foot play.”
THIS ' N' THAT
With Kane and Yamamoto out, we'll see if Woodcroft gives farmhand Dylan Holloway his first NHL game because of his speed or does he go to Derick Brassard? Or Devin Shore, after not playing for 15 games.