Canadiens’ Evans concussed, Jets’ Scheifele disciplined for heavy hit
WINNIPEG — Winnipeg Jets centre Mark Scheifele, the team’s leading scorer during the regular season, had a phone hearing with the NHL’S Department of Player Safety on Thursday, a day after his hit left Montreal Canadiens forward Jake Evans unconscious on the ice.
The result of the hearing was unavailable at deadline, but a hearing of this nature means Scheifele will almost certainly be suspended, with a maximum sentence of five games.
Scheifele has never been suspended before in the NHL and is not known for these types of hits — he had just 12 penalty minutes in the 2021 season and has averaged 30 minutes a season in eight years in the NHL — but that doesn’t lessen what happened on Wednesday night in Game 1 of the North Division final at Bell MTS Place.
“He’s one of my best friends and I know that he doesn’t play the game in a vicious manner or anything like that,” Jets defencemen Josh Morrissey said as the team held an optional practice at Bell MTS Place Thursday.
“The last thing he’s out there to do is try to hurt somebody. The unfortunate result of the hit and the immediate concern of everybody goes to the safety and health of Jake Evans, when he’s in obvious distress on the ice. Those types of things are scary for everybody involved and you don’t ever want to see a player in a situation like that.”
Scheifele was given a charging major and game misconduct after levelling Evans, who had just scored an empty-net goal to seal a 5-3 win for the Canadiens.
Jets coach Paul Maurice wasn’t even sure Scheifele deserved that penalty.
“It was a heavy, heavy hit, but it was clean,” Maurice said.
“The feet are on the ice, the arms are tucked in and it’s body contact. That’s how I saw it.
“He’s a big, strong, powerful man that can skate. In order to try to cut that play off he was skating pretty good. He wasn’t striding through the hit by any means. It was a hell of a hit. It was hard, good on Evans — he took the hit to make the play.”
Scheifele skated the length of the ice to try to prevent the goal, but rather than going for the puck, he chose to hammer Evans up high. Evans crumpled to the ice and did not move for several minutes.
“It was a heavy hit,” Jets winger Andrew Copp said. “Down a goal, with a minute to go and just trying to stop them from scoring and, you know, go the other way. So, obviously, you hope Evans is okay. I saw him get on the bus yesterday as I was leaving the rink. Seemed like he didn’t go to the hospital or anything like that. That’s really good news, happy to hear that it’s not anything too bad. So, just hope his health is OK and just move on from it.”
The Canadiens were incensed, calling it a “dirty, disgusting hit.” They said they hoped Scheifele would be suspended for the rest of the series, but if not, defenceman Joel Edmundson said after the game that the Jets centre is in for a rough ride when he returns.
Habs coach Dominique Ducharme walked back those comments on Thursday.
“First off, we’ll let the league do its work and we’ll see after,” Ducharme said. “But the day (Scheifele) steps back on the ice, what Joel (Edmundson) meant to say is we’ll be in his face and we’ll be hard on him, but within the rules. We’re here to win. We’re here to win a series.”
Emergency medical personnel took Evans off the ice on a stretcher. He is reportedly at the Canadiens hotel — he did not go to hospital — and doing OK, although Ducharme said Thursday that he is out indefinitely with a concussion.
“He’s doing better,” Ducharme said. “We have our two doctors with us, so they took care of him last night. They didn’t feel the need to bring him to the hospital, which was good news. So, he’s certainly going to miss some time—a lot of time—but it’s hard to judge (how much) right now.”
“It was a heavy, heavy hit, but it was clean … The feet are on the ice, the arms are tucked in and it’s body contact. That’s how I saw it.” Winnipeg Jets head coach Paul Maurice