Weise latest fearsome Flyer to be suspended
The big bad, bruising Flyers ... well, maybe not big ... might have seemed like they were pushed around a little in their last couple of games, and they might be hearing and reading stories about their lack of size ... yet they are the league leaders in disciplinary slaps.
Checking line forward Dale Weise is the latest offender, suspended by the NHL’s Department of Player Safety Friday for three games stemming from a hit to the head of Anaheim’s Korbinian Holzer in the Ducks’ 3-2 victory at Wells Fargo Center Thursday. Weise was not penalized and Holzer was not hurt. He made a rather brilliant pass to Ryan Garbutt for the winning goal in the third period.
In laying down the penalty, a video statement released by the league said Weise turned and checked Holzer, but did so in an inappropriate fashion.
Weise made Holzer’s head “the main point of contact on a hit where such head contact was avoidable,” according to the video.
It went on to say Weise “extends up and into the head of Holzer, delivering a blow to the head and knocking him to the ice. This is an illegal check to the head . ... Rather than staying low and hitting squarely through his opponent’s body, Weise extends his body unnecessarily upward and makes Holzer’s head the main point of contact.”
It’s the second time in his career that Weise, who played 173 NHL games with four clubs before joining the Flyers, was suspended for an illegal check to the head area.
He’s also the third Flyer to be serving a suspension this season, even if the season is all of four games old.
Brayden Schenn just returned from a three-game vacation, earned via a high hit on T.J. Oshie during the sixth and final playoff game against Washington last April.
Radko Gudas earned a six-game suspension for a check on Rangers rookie Jimmy Vesey in a preseason game, and now Weise will join him on detention row.
All this nastiness from a club that so many Twitter critics have already judged to be too small?
“I don’t think it’s a problem,” Shayne Gostisbehere said of the size issue after the Anaheim loss. “I mean, we just got done with L.A. (a season-opening win last Friday), and they’re another big team. I think we can play with any team in the NHL, of course. But, no I don’t think size is any difference. It’s playmaking and it’s our readiness of the game.”
Expect Roman Lyubimov to take Weise’s place in the lineup Saturday night when the Flyers host the Carolina Panthers.