On Wednesday night against the Vancouver Canucks, the Calgary Flames lost captain Mikael Backlund to an injury. They also lost the game, 4-3 in a shootout. Could they potentially be losing forward Connor Zary following a high hit on Canucks defenceman Elias Pettersson in the first period?
11:17 into the first period, Pettersson stepped up to Nazem Kadri as he entered the Canucks zone and delivered a forceful – clean – check to Kadri, which knocked Kadri on his butt. (He got right back up.)
Right after that hit on Kadri, Connor Zary made a bee-line to engage with Pettersson. (This follows a trend this season of youngsters protecting veteran teammates, as both Adam Klapka and Matt Coronato have gone after opponents that have bodied Mikael Backlund this season.)
Except when Zary went after Pettersson, the Canucks defender was following the play and Zary ended up decking him from the side. (From replays it’s not quite clear if Zary hit him with his forearm or his elbow, but either way, Pettersson went down.)
Zary was given a minor penalty for interference on the sequence, while Pettersson played two more shifts in the first period but didn’t return for the second or third periods.
The big question: do Zary’s actions cross the line from “hockey play” and enter the realm where supplemental discipline is warranted? The NHL’s Department of Player Safety typically looks at a few different aspects of the situation:
  • Could the player engaging have done anything differently? (Was the play predatory?)
  • Did the player they were engaging with do anything to put themselves in a vulnerable position?
  • Does the player engaging have any history of supplemental discpline?
  • Was there an injury on the sequence?
The big thing for me is the angle of approach from Zary. Because Kadri dumped the puck on net right before the hit, the puck went deep into the zone and Pettersson’s facing away from Zary and tracking the puck – his goal was to separate Kadri from the puck, and so he’s now paying attention to the puck. As such, Zary’s engaging with a player who’s seemingly unaware that an altercation is happening.
The thing that may save Zary is that the play is reckless, but it’s not clear if it crossed into the realm of being predatory. If you take the time to spin Pettersson around to engage, he can defend himself and doesn’t eat a forearm or elbow to the noggin. But as it stands, Zary was rushing to engage and, in doing so, injured Pettersson. Zary also has no history of supplemental discipline, which also works in his favour.
As it stands, Zary’s recklessness likely earns him a fine. His clean record thus far in his NHL career probably earns him some benefit of the doubt from Player Safety and helps him avoid suspension, but they’ll probably be keeping a close eye on him from here on out.
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