Brandon Manning is going to take a two-game seat. The Flyers defenseman delivered a late hit against Penguins forward Jake Guentzel in Saturday night’s Stadium Series game at Heinz Field, and today the NHL announced that he’s been suspended two games for the incident.
Here’s the NHL’s ruling:
The league notes that the hit made “substantial head contact” and that the hit was interference … which, we can’t really argue. It was a late hit, and the puck was gone well after the window of time in which Manning could have delivered a legal check here. The puck was gone before Manning even turned into Guentzel.
Manning should not have delivered this hit. There was no call on the ice, but that doesn’t really change that this was illegal.
Meanwhile, of course … here’s a hit Evgeni Malkin delivered against Winnipeg’s Blake Wheeler last week. Look familiar? No suspension.
Oh, and Cameron Gaunce of the Penguins speared Michael Raffl in the balls during the second period of the outdoor game too, shortly before the Manning hit.
Raffl takes a stick between the legs. pic.twitter.com/xkxAPyXRHY
— Sons of Penn (@SonsofPenn) February 26, 2017
Told by a league source there will be no hearing for Pittsburgh’s Cameron Gaunce for spear on #Flyers Michael Raffl in last night’s contest.
— David Strehle (@DStrehleTFP) February 26, 2017
No call on the ice, no hearing. I’m not saying there’s a conspiracy against the Flyers or anything — there isn’t! really! — but you see stuff like this and it’s not hard to wonder why Flyers fans sometimes feel that way. Or at least why they feel like the league goes easy on its star players like Malkin, who is low-key one of the dirtiest dudes in the game.
