{"id":432641,"date":"2026-01-28T14:53:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/432641\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T14:53:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:53:22","slug":"penguins-bryan-rust-suspended-three-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/432641\/","title":{"rendered":"Penguins’ Bryan Rust Suspended Three Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NHL\u2019s Department of Player Safety has imposed<\/a> a three-game suspension on Penguins winger\u00a0Bryan Rust<\/a> for an illegal check to the head against Canucks winger\u00a0Brock Boeser<\/a> during the closing seconds of Sunday\u2019s game in Vancouver. While suspended, he continues to count against Pittsburgh\u2019s salary cap and active roster.<\/p>\n

Rust was in the defensive zone while the Penguins were fending off a late challenge from the Canucks to tie the game. While Boeser was attempting to join a net-front battle, Rust dove down from the slot and attempted a hard hit, missing Boeser\u2019s core entirely and striking his head with his right shoulder. Rust was given a two-minute minor on the play for a check to the head. As the game was over, there wasn\u2019t any consequence.<\/p>\n

In their explanation video today, DoPS deemed the head contact avoidable. \u201cRust takes a poor angle of approach, choosing an angle that causes him to cut across the front of Boeser\u2019s body, missing his core,\u201d the video states. \u201cRust then raises his arm and leans into contact, causing direct contact with Boeser\u2019s head with requisite force for supplemental discipline.\u201d It\u2019s the first interaction Rust has had with DoPS over his 12-year career, though, making the penalty seem steep at first glance, although the fact that Boeser sustained a head injury on the play factored into the length.<\/p>\n

Rust isn\u2019t on pace to match the career-high 31 goals he tallied last season, but he\u2019s still a crucial part of the Pens\u2019 top six. The 33-year-old owns an 18-21\u201339 scoring line in 47 appearances while averaging a career-high 20:07 of ice time per game. For a streaking Pens team with a six-point cushion on a playoff spot, that\u2019s a significant loss \u2013 especially with their offense clicking so well at 4.67 goals per game over their last six.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NHL\u2019s Department of Player Safety has imposed a three-game suspension on Penguins winger\u00a0Bryan Rust for an illegal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[305,2215,5,100,2180,405,27],"class_list":["post-432641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hockey","tag-brock-boeser","tag-bryan-rust","tag-hockey","tag-pittsburgh-penguins","tag-player-safety","tag-transactions","tag-vancouver-canucks"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115973299148446819","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}