The sport’s best player has been in the news recently.
On Saturday evening, the Edmonton Oilers were attempting to rally from 3-0 down against the Vancouver Canucks, bringing the score to within one. In the final minute, Conor Garland held fellow Connor, Connor McDavid. Once freed, all chaos broke out.
McDavid got up and cross-checked Garland in the head with the two teams getting into a scrum with less than four seconds left in the game. The call was clear, as McDavid was given a match penalty which means the league will have a hearing with McDavid.
Seconds later though, another incident occurred, as Canucks defenceman Tyler Myers cross-checked Evan Bouchard in the face. This one seemed unprovoked, as Bouchard was skating over to him and hadn’t even made contact with Myers. Like McDavid, Myers received a match penalty and will have a hearing with the league.
This isn’t the first incident McDavid has had in the past week. In Wednesday’s game against the Minnesota Wild, he stuck out his elbow and hit Marcus Johansson in the face. The Wild forward left the game and didn’t return. McDavid was neither fined nor suspended. You have to think he will be for Saturday’s incident.
To make matters better, the two teams matchup on Thursday, with both teams playing a game before their next matchup. Sadly, the Canucks’ 3-2 win means that they move to one behind the final Wild Card spot, which is held by the Calgary Flames.
Maxim Tsyplakov suspended for three games
Speaking of suspensions, New York Islanders winger Maxim Tsyplakov was suspended for three games for an illegal hit to the head.
The incident occurred in the Islanders’ 5-3 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday, as Ryan Poehling shot the puck and was blindsided by Tsyplakov. No penalty was called on the play despite being reviewed.
Tsyplakov is playing his first season in the National Hockey League after seven seasons in the Kontinental Hockey League. Last season, the 26-year-old had 31 goals and 47 points before signing a one-year, $950,000 deal with the Islanders. This season, he has seven goals and 19 points in 44 games.
Alex Nedeljkovic became the first goalie with a goal and an assist in the same game
In Friday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres, Pittsburgh Penguins’ netminder Alex Nedeljkovic fired the puck into the empty net to give the Penguins a 5-2 lead, the score of the game.
On top of the goal, the netminder picked up an assist, a rather uncommon feat for a goalie. A netminder scoring is far more rare though, as there have been 19 goals at the National Hockey League Level, 12 of which were shot into the net rather than the goalie being credited as the last player to touch it.
Funnily enough, Nedeljkovic has a knack for getting goals, as he also became the first netminder to score at the ECHL level, the American Hockey League level, and the NHL level.
This is the second goalie goal of the season, as Minnesota Wild netminder Filip Gustavsson scored early in the season. It’s also the first time in history that two goalie goals were scored in the same season.
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