Milan Lucic has been suspended for one game by the NHL.
Lucic had a phone hearing with NHL VP of Player Safety Brendan Shanahan Monday morning after hitting Philadelphia's Zac Rinaldo from behind on Saturday. He received a five-minute major and a game misconduct for the hit.
Shanahan explains the suspension, as well as the illegal nature of the hit, in a video on NHL.com's Player Safety channel.
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Lucic declined to comment about the phone hearing following Mondays morning skate, but he likely employed the same defense as he did in Saturdays postgame while discussing his review of the videotape. Lucic felt it was shoulder-on-shoulder contact with the Flyers' Zac Rinaldo turning his back to him at the very last minute of contact.
Rinaldo actually agreed with the Lucic's assessment.
Its hockey, you hit and go into the boards, I dont think it was dirty at all, Rinaldo told CSNPhilly.com reporter Tim Panaccio. It was shoulder-to-shoulder and just momentum. Hes big guy, maybe double my weight. His momentum carried him into the boards awkwardly. I dont think it was dirty at all.
Bruins coach Claude Julien seemed a little annoyed that the hearing and decision are coming down to within hours of the Bs game against their divisional rivals in Montreal.
We have a lot of different things up in the air with the Lucic situation, and no answers on that yet, said Julien following Mondays optional morning skate at TD Garden.
The hearing was the second conversation between Lucic and Shanahan this season. Lucic managed to evade any supplemental discipline for his collision with Buffalo goaltender Ryan Miller last month. However, at the general managers meeting in November, league GMs told Shanahan that they would have liked to have seen Lucic suspended for the Miller hit.