Johnny Gaudreau pulled from game after hit to the head

[Scott Stevens]

nope. Mostly leafs fans.

I’m glad my team doesn’t have any kind of rivalry with Toronto
I think they get a bad rap on here but it seems like drama ensues

 

[lawrence]

I’m glad my team doesn’t have any kind of rivalry with Toronto
I think they get a bad rap on here but it seems like drama ensues

our team doesn't have a rivalry with them either.

 

[Scott Stevens]

our team doesn't have a rivalry with them either.

Both our teams kept them out of the final back in the leafs western conference days

 

[crazyfisherman]

It's not a height thing, it's about proximity to McAvoy. Gaudreau's shoulder is closer to McAvoy than his head, until he opens up. At that point he's essentially leading with his face, as well as dropping his center of gravity to push towards the puck again. They're meeting halfway, it shouldn't fall entirely on the shoulders of the defenseman in a scenario like that or else there is quite simply little point in coaching physical crease clearance. The costs have grown far too steep for the potential benefit.

it is absolutely a height thing, JG was leading with his head the whole time. McAvoy did nothing to adjust for the differences in height and thats why a hit to the head was made. It would very likely be a clean hit if it was anyone taller, but its the hitter's job the make sure the hit is below the shoulders

 

[CraigsList]

Until the new NHL really ruins itself and removes all physicality this angle actually shows nothing done wrong. He throws Gaudreau to the ice through the body with head staring at the ice so some chin contact is made. If McAvoy did NOT make the hit he'd be in trouble for his job. We are getting soft and judging everything on result.

In trouble for his job? He didn't play the puck, the puck was long gone. That was just a garbage hit.

 

[Bounces R Way]

As far as I know you're not allowed to hit people in the head. If you're going to suspend Wilson for his hit on Aston Reese last year and Matheson for a throwdown on Pettersson then this should be no different.

 

[Rowlet]

clearly Gaudreau's neck muscles weren't strong enough on this play

 

[Anglesmith]

The last few pages feature quite a few posters who seem to be unaware that this was interference. It's absurd to be discussing whether a player took a hit the right way when he wasn't eligible to be hit. I'm not one of the guys thinking what McAvoy did was all that egregious, but there shouldn't be any focus on whether Gaudreau did something wrong on a play where he was not in possession of the puck, and hadn't been for a while.

 

[Llamamoto]

I hope he gets suspended for the game against the Oilers

 

[HTFN]

Seeing that angle he's looking right at him and follows through the hit with his upper body. That's the part that I take issue with. Definitely worse than I thought seeing it live. Not sure if it is suspendable given it's the NHL and what's good today is bad tomorrow and vice versa but yeah, I'd be pissed if that was a player on my team.

It's only worse in slow motion. In real time I sincerely doubt there's any way for McAvoy to realize what's happening until he's already in his follow through. I've had my fair share of collisions where there's no time to do anything but think "uh oh", and it's only muscle memory propelling you through the contact itself. At that point it's hurt or be hurt, potentially. Shying away from contact is the first step towards a losing result.

 

[Tomas W]

Finally good angle gif, thanks for uploading.

Kind of hard to say how egregious this is. Gaudreau is still swiveling around and his head is down searching for the puck when McAvoy makes contact.

It doesn't appear as though McAvoy actually contacts Gaudreau's head with his elbow/forearm (I'm seeing forearm to chest) according to this gif. The head is the "principal point of contact" though (i.e. first part of Gaudreau that is contacted) and it hits McAvoy's shoulder.

Maybe McAvoy had some time/space to maybe lighten up seeing that Gaudreau's head was in a very vulnerable position?? Hard to say since it's a sort of bang-bang play.

I would be fine with McAvoy getting a short suspension (1-2 games max) and I'd be fine with him not getting suspended either. I think a long suspension would be unwarranted.

Agree with this.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Until the new NHL really ruins itself and removes all physicality this angle actually shows nothing done wrong. He throws Gaudreau to the ice through the body with head staring at the ice so some chin contact is made. If McAvoy did NOT make the hit he'd be in trouble for his job. We are getting soft and judging everything on result.

I don't have an issue with him clearing Johnny out, but he followed through with his arm when he likely saw that he was going to contact him to the head.

 

[Anglesmith]

As far as I know you're not allowed to hit people in the head. If you're going to suspend Wilson for his hit on Aston Reese last year and Matheson for a throwdown on Pettersson then this should be no different.

Then I would advise reading the rules. In order to suspend Wilson, they twisted the rules and said that he had a choice of how he approached the hit, and chose one specifically because it led to head contact.

The rule is that you can't make unavoidable head contact, and there is a breakdown in the rule book of why you would consider head contact avoidable. In this case, they would certainly rule it unavoidable.... if Gaudreau was a legal target for a hit. But it's interference, so there would normally be a different standard for head contact. It all comes down to how the league views McAvoy's intent. Was he genuinely thinking Gaudreau was still involved with the puck when he committed to the hit, and he was just finishing a check? Or was he aware that his teammate was already skating the puck away, and wanted to take advantage of a rare opportunity to hit Gaudreau?

 

[Bryanbryoil]

It's only worse in slow motion. In real time I sincerely doubt there's any way for McAvoy to realize what's happening until he's already in his follow through. I've had my fair share of collisions where there's no time to do anything but think "uh oh", and it's only muscle memory propelling you through the contact itself. At that point it's hurt or be hurt, potentially. Shying away from contact is the first step towards a losing result.

Fair point, it happens so quick out there.

 

[Bounces R Way]

Then I would advise reading the rules. In order to suspend Wilson, they twisted the rules and said that he had a choice of how he approached the hit, and chose one specifically because it led to head contact.

The rule is that you can't make unavoidable head contact, and there is a breakdown in the rule book of why you would consider head contact avoidable. In this case, they would certainly rule it unavoidable.... if Gaudreau was a legal target for a hit. But it's interference, so there would normally be a different standard for head contact. It all comes down to how the league views McAvoy's intent. Was he genuinely thinking Gaudreau was still involved with the puck when he committed to the hit, and he was just finishing a check? Or was he aware that his teammate was already skating the puck away, and wanted to take advantage of a rare opportunity to hit Gaudreau?

Pretty obviously avoidable. Could of just not hit him in the first place. Instead he puts his elbow into his chin.

 

[Lunatik]

Fair point, it happens so quick out there.

Even live my first thought was about it being late. Not high, or anything, but late. Which is also what the official saw, as he gave McAvoy an interference penalty.

 

[CraigsList]

Then I would advise reading the rules. In order to suspend Wilson, they twisted the rules and said that he had a choice of how he approached the hit, and chose one specifically because it led to head contact.

The rule is that you can't make unavoidable head contact, and there is a breakdown in the rule book of why you would consider head contact avoidable. In this case, they would certainly rule it unavoidable.... if Gaudreau was a legal target for a hit. But it's interference, so there would normally be a different standard for head contact. It all comes down to how the league views McAvoy's intent. Was he genuinely thinking Gaudreau was still involved with the puck when he committed to the hit, and he was just finishing a check? Or was he aware that his teammate was already skating the puck away, and wanted to take advantage of a rare opportunity to hit Gaudreau?

Considering the puck was quite a ways away from Gaudreau by the time McAvoy hit Gaudreau, I would say that it was intentional. To play devil's advocate, perhaps McAvoy thought the puck was still by Gaudreau and just wanted to lay him out so Rask could hold the puck. From seeing the replay multiple times, I just don't see the justification of the hit. It was blatant interference, and could even be suspension worthy if the NHL considers it a bad one. I personally don't think it's suspension worthy, but McAvoy needs to watch where he hits. It doesn't help Gaudreau was looking at the puck and his height being very disadvantageous.

 

[theVladiator]

Completely hated Matheson's slamdown. This, however, seems like a hockey play to me. Gaudreau looks like he is looking for the puck, and McAvoy plays the man instead of trying to look for it too. Interference is the right call here because Gaudreau actually did not have the puck, but it doesn't look malicious because he certainly looked that he was about to find that rebound. I do not see clear intent to injure here. I do not think McAvoy could have pushed much lower than he did, and he did the arm shove when let's say a lunge with the shoulder has much more potential for damage in this situation. So, while there is head contact, it doesn't look like the head is the target here.

Hopefully Gaudreau is ok. He skated off on his own, that's a good sign.

 

[Snauen]

Clearly Gaudreau need to get taller, this is a mens league. He should also have better neck muscels and the concussion wouldn't happen. Nothing to se here, move on

 

[bleedgreen]

That’s not a suspension. That’s two minutes tops.

 

[tiburon12]

Gaudreau is haunched and has his head down, which makes it really hard to avoid head contact with someone of his size. McAvoy has every right to hit him too.

Tough play all around. If McAvoy wants to play the body there, no way he does it without hitting Gaurdreau in the head, unless he drops to his knees. his forearm was level with his own chest, so it isnt like he came up high.

Will be interesting to see the end result

 

[JPeeper]

Did he return to the game?

It's been 7 pages and I eventually avoid these threads because they just become unbelievably stupid so your question may have been answered, but the concussion protocol guy from the NHL pulled him from the game the next shift.

 

[Johnnybegood13]

The issue for me is McAvoy appears frustrated by being cleanly beat on the play(and a few times this game) and goes in for a kill shot, problem is the puck is already going the other way so not only is it a cheap hit, it's a late hit. I think a fine at least just to settle him down in the future

 

[JPeeper]

Did any of the flames react to the hit? To me that hit looked late.

Yes. Both times Gaudreau got cheapshotted his teammates went after the guy. He was knee'd earlier and Andersson (a rookie) and Hanifin both went after Donato, Mony came in too trying to get a piece.

On this play I can't remember who came in, but I know it did lead to a scuffle.

Sucks that no one stood up for Peterrson.

 

[tiburon12]

The issue for me is McAvoy appears frustrated by being cleanly beat on the play(and a few times this game) and goes in for a kill shot, problem is the puck is already going the other way so not only is it a cheap hit, it's a late hit. I think a fine at least just to settle him down in the future

Puck was not going the other way, nor was it late. This issue here is the headshot, not the timeliness of the hit.