Kane faces suspension for abuse of officials
He made contact during altercation with Vegas
SAN JOSE >> Evander Kane may be facing a lengthy suspension from the NHL after he was ejected from the Sharks’ road preseason game against the Vegas Golden Knights for abuse of officials.
During an altercation in the third period of Sunday’s game, Golden Knights defenseman Deryk Engelland crosschecked Kane in the side. Kane then turned around and slashed Engelland, but his stick also made contact with linesman Kiel Murchison, who was holding onto the back of Engelland’s jersey.
Later in the sequence, Murchison
left Engelland and grabbed the front of Kane’s jersey. Almost immediately after, Kane landed on the ice with Murchison on top of him. When Kane got up and with Murchison still holding on, Kane gave the linesman a shove with his left arm.
“The official did a good job of getting in between him and Deryk Engelland, and Kane didn’t like what the official was doing and he put his hands on him,” said former NHL player Eddie Olczyk, an analyst for NBC Sports, on a conference call Monday. “Whether he pushed him or grazed him or whatever, that can’t happen regardless of how heated this rivalry is or if it’s an exhibition game.”
Physical abuse of officials is covered in Rule 40 of the NHL Rulebook, with three separate categories for punishment depending on the severity of the offense. A Category I offense, which includes “deliberately striking an official” and causing injury carries a minimum 20-game suspension. A Category III offense, physically demeaning or threatening an official, carries a minimum three-game suspension.
Any suspension handed to Kane could fall under NHL rule 40.3, Category II, which states, “Any player who deliberately applies physical force to an official in any manner, which physical force is applied without intent to injure, or who spits on an official, shall be automatically suspended for not less than ten (10) games.”
Darren Dreger of TSN in Toronto tweeted Monday that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman will have to confirm and officially enforce any suspension, but that his decision will not likely become known before Tuesday. The Sharks open the regular season Wednesday in Las Vegas with a nationally televised game against the Golden Knights.
“You love the emotion,” Olczyk said, “but anytime you take advantage of the official or put your hand on him or push him or whatever he was trying to do to get away from him, there should be a penalty and there was in the game and it was the right call. I would anticipate something happening.”
After Sunday’s game, per league protocol, referees Gord Dwyer and Steve Kozari, in consultation with Murchison and fellow linesman Ryan Gibbons, were to decide the severity of the offense. The officials are to then make a “verbal report to the League’s Director of Hockey Operations and advise of the category and of the offense.”
The NHL Player’s Association, Kane, and the Sharks were to be notified of the decision Monday morning, and the NHL was to hold a conference call with the NHLPA “to review the application of the rule.”
Kane, if given a 10-game suspension, would not be eligible to return until Oct. 25 when the Sharks play in Toronto. If Kane wanted to appeal any suspension, such a request would have to be filed within 72 hours following notification of the penalty.
A in-person hearing would then be conducted on an expedited basis, and Kane would remain under suspension pending the outcome as determined by Bettman, who can either uphold the original suspension, increase the number of games within the category, change the penalty to a lower category or change the penalty to a lower category and increase the number of “increate games within this category.”
After Sunday’s 5-1 Sharks’ loss, Kane was upset at the way he was treated by officials, specifically Murchison, saying, “If you look at the way I get treated out there when it comes to the scrums or whatever it may be, what the other team’s trying to do to me, there’s a massive difference compared to everybody else on the ice,” Kane said. “I’ve never seen … I get kicked out of the game for getting jumped from behind by a referee (Murchison).”
Kane was also given a five-minute fighting major and a two-minute roughing minor earlier in the game for separate altercations with Valentin Zykov. There were 114 penalty minutes issued Sunday.
“I’ve never seen the refs take five strides and if you look at his face, he’s getting all his power and trying to drive me into the ice, which is what he did,” Kane continued. “That’s unbelievable. Talk about abuse of an official? What about abuse of a player? It’s an absolute joke.”