Game 4 between the Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights was a complete bloodbath, and both Alex Pietrangelo and Darnell Nurse will be watching Game 5 from the press box because of it.
Pietrangelo was suspended for a tomahawk style slash on Leon Draisaitl in the waning minutes of the 4-1 Oilers win, while Nurse was given an instigator penalty with under five minutes left in the contest for starting a fight, an infraction that is an automatic one-game ban under league rules.
Golden Knights forward Mark Stone said after the game that Nicolas Hague asked for a fight with Nurse, a fact the NHL probably should have looked at when determining whether Nurse should be suspended at all.
Pietrangelo, on the other hand, certainly deserved the suspension for the violent slash that was not at all a hockey play. He was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct, and if it were the regular season, he probably would have had the book thrown at him.
“That’s a really, really, dangerous slash, you know?” Draisaitl said on Thursday, per NHL.com. “I think those are things that have nothing to do with hockey or the game. You can seriously, seriously injure someone with a slash like that.”
“I mean, it’s as intent to injure as you can get,” Connor McDavid echoed in the minutes after Game 4. “Time, score, clock all play a factor. He comes from over his own head and places it just kind of under Leon’s chin. You’d like to see something like that suspended. It’s not a hockey play.”
NHL Twitter was certainly on the side of the Oilers on this one:
NHL Math finding ways to make both of these things the same
Accepting a request to fight = 1 game
Two hand slash with intent to injure = 1 game
— Captain Jack (@OilersJack) May 12, 2023
“I’m shocked, appalled, i’m disgusted.”@ryanwhitney6 is not happy the Pietrangelo suspension is the same as the Nurse suspension.
: https://t.co/aNGw9skbvo pic.twitter.com/io3yd2mDPu
— Spittin’ Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) May 12, 2023
I know Nurse’s suspension was by the book but it’s kind of insane he gets the same punishment as Pietrangelo trying to chop a guy’s hands off 30 feet away from the puck
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) May 12, 2023
Pietrangelo and Nurse suspensions offset each other. Bad league. https://t.co/dPOCNyv1JI
— Steve “Dangle” Glynn (@Steve_Dangle) May 12, 2023
I don’t think the NHL Dept. of Player Safety got this one right.
Alex Pietrangelo deserved at least 2 games for his slash on Leon Draisaitl. When intent is that clear — late in the 3rd, in a losing effort — and the target is the other team’s leading scorer? C’mon. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/WFQrG7RdwM
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) May 12, 2023
Huge break for @GoldenKnights as DoPS suspends Darnell Nurse and Alex Pietrangelo for one game. The two acts, Nurse fighting a willing combatant and Pietrangelo’s cowardly two-hand chop on Leon Draisaitl, couldn’t be further from being equal. But DoPS not seeking right just easy.
— Scott Burnside (@OvertimeScottB) May 12, 2023
Nurse instigator/one-game suspension should have been rescinded OR Pietrangelo should have gotten more than one game.
What Pietrangelo and Nurse did should not be punished equallyhttps://t.co/zO6NrAUzva
— Harman Dayal (@harmandayal2) May 12, 2023
The general consensus around the hockey world is that the NHL Department of Player Safety did not get this one right.
Still, one of Vegas’ best blueliners in Alex Pietrangelo and one of Edmonton’s premier defenders in Darnell Nurse will each sit for a game ahead of an absolutely critical Game 5 at T-Mobile Arena on Friday night.
Saying there is now bad blood between these two teams is putting it extremely mildly, and Friday’s contest figures to be a thrilling affair.
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