Deryk Engelland May Be Getting Suspended

Good morning! The Calgary Flames lost 4-1 to the Vancouver Canucks last night. The game was largely out of hand by the third period.

So things go chippy, as they tend to do late in one-sided playoff games. And that led to a melee near the end of the contest that may have line-up implications for both sides for Game 3.

A giant scrum erupted with 1:17 remaining in regulation beside Eddie Lack’s net.

First and foremost, I expect some fines to both sides.

Secondly, I think Deryk Engelland’s getting suspended for Game 3.

Here’s my understanding of the penalties: Stajan and Richardson had the original fight, and then Engelland and Dorsett get after each other. That’s a secondary altercation, which is an automatic game misconduct under Rule 46. In addition, he got given an instigator penalty in the final five minutes of a game, which is also an automatic game misconduct under Rule 46. Now, presumably his third game misconduct (and Dorsett’s second) were for continuing the altercation past the completion of their original secondary altercation. You can argue that the third game misconduct is bogus, as Dorsett did as much (if not more) to continue the altercation as Engelland did.

But let’s not lie to each other there: the first two game misconducts aren’t nearly as disputable.

But per Elliotte Friedman’s Twitter, he believes the game misconducts are for (1) the instigator in the last five minutes of a game, (2) being the aggressor in a fight, (3) the secondary altercation. I’ll tend to believe Friedman more often than not, so there’s a chance that the automatic suspension rule doesn’t apply. (How being the aggressor in a fight applies here and continuing an altercation doesn’t, I don’t know, but my understanding is the scoresheet has been poured over by league officials.)

Here’s Rule 23.3, which governs suspensions.

Engelland better hope that the “continuing the altercation” game misconduct gets tossed out (or that Friedman’s information is correct on it being the aggressor version instead, because as it stands, he likely has two General Category game misconducts, and that means an automatic suspension. Then again, based on this metric, Dorsett would also face an automatic suspension.

Meanwhile, Bob McKenzie weighed in on a potential Kris Russell suspension or fine:

Presumably, if Engelland was unable to play on Sunday, the Flames would bring Tyler Wotherspoon into action and move pairings around like crazy.