According to Renaud Lavoie of TVA, the NHL has judged that the Eric Nystrom head shot on Danny Briere last night was accidental contact and will not be applying any sort of punishment.
No suspension / hearing for Eric Nystrom after a hit on Daniel Brière last night. Hit was judge accidental. #predators
— Renaud Lavoie (@LavoieRenaud) October 20, 2013
I would buy the hit being accidental if Nystrom hadn’t jumped into the hit, directly targeting Briere’s head.
Nystrom may have been on that path by accident, but he saw Briere before contact and changed position in order to make direct contact with his head. Why would he jump if he wasn’t going for a high hit?
Nystrom getting suspended doesn’t benefit the Montreal Canadiens in any way, but it is getting rather tiring watching players take cheap shots continually with no discipline. The head shot on Josh Gorges was even worse than this one, worse than head shots that have seen players get long suspensions, yet the NHL didn’t review it, and instead called it one of the plays of the night.
I guess that’s par for the course with the NHL’s wheel of justice.
More from Eyes On The Prize:
- Canadiens vs Predators – Game Recap – Head shots, rule bending, and poor performance ends the Habs’ winning streak
- Highlights of the Habs’ 2-1 loss to the Predators
- Canadiens vs. Predators: Top Six Minutes – Zebra Safari Edition
- Daniel Briere injured after taking a check to the head, done for the night
- Does Sylvain Lefebvre know what he’s doing?/
Should there have been suspensions for the head shots the Predators committed last night?
Both hits should have resulted in suspensions | 76 |
The Nystrom hit was suspension worthy | 26 |
The Bourque hit was suspension worthy | 28 |
Neither hit was suspendable, the NHL was right | 23 |