In their loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday, the Tampa Bay Lightning were subjected to 20 hits from their opponent. According to the Department of Player Safety, one of those hits crossed the legal line. At the 5:32 mark of the third period there was a loose puck in the neutral zone that Jake Guentzel was trying to gather up. Leafs defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson prevented him from doing so:
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Despite the rather nasty contact and the way his head snapped back, Guetzel appeared to be fine and returned to the game. Ekman-Larsson was penalized for interference on the play (the Lightning did not score on the power play) and everyone moved on. At least until the end of the game when there was a big dust-up after the final horn.
Today, the league’s office announced that the 33 year-old defenseman had been fined for the play. The amount of the fine was $5,000. Which is, say it with us, the maximum allowable under the current CBA.
While the hit was egregious considering Guentzel hadn’t come close to touching the puck at the point of contact, hundreds, if not thousands, of similar or worse hits have come and gone without supplemental discipline. So it is somewhat surprising to see the league take additional action in this case, especially considering that it didn’t appear that the principle point of contact was the head.
The two teams meet again on November 30th in Tampa.
