New Jersey Devils forward Evan Rodrigues has been fined $5,000 for high-sticking Vancouver Canucks center Marco Rossi on Saturday, the Department of Player Safety announced Sunday.<\/p>\n
With about 10 seconds left in the second period, Rodrigues and Rossi lined up for a center-ice faceoff after a false start. Rossi shoved Rodrigues away from the dot; Rodrigues answered by jabbing his stick up into Rossi\u2019s chest. Rossi crumpled to the ice.<\/p>\n
Referees Francois St-Laurent and Stephen Hiff initially assessed a spearing major. After reviewing the play, they downgraded it to a double-minor for high-sticking \u2013 four minutes instead of five, and no game misconduct.<\/p>\n
Canucks coach Manny Malhotra said he disagreed with the officials\u2019 explanation, though he refused to share what was actually said.<\/p>\n
We also disagree with the eventual ruling; we thought they got it right the first time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Spearing vs. High Sticking<\/p>\n
Spearing is covered under Rule 62:<\/p>\n
Spearing shall mean stabbing an opponent with the point of the stick blade, whether contact is made or not.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
A double-minor penalty will be imposed on a player who spears an opponent and does not make contact.<\/p>\n
A major penalty shall be imposed on a player who spears an opponent. \u2026 Whenever a major penalty is assessed for spearing, a game misconduct penalty must also be imposed.<\/p>\n
What the review evidently decided: there was no stabbing motion. The stick rode up into the neck \u2013 resulting in contact above the shoulders causing injury \u2013 falling under a double-minor for high-sticking (Rule 60.3).<\/p>\n
The tough part is that there\u00a0does appear to be a stabbing motion. The Devils\u2019 center\u2019s stick movement is parallel to the stick shaft.\u00a0\u00a0There\u2019s also clearly contact, which requires a major penalty under the spearing rule.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Player Safety Takes Disciplinary Action<\/p>\n
Player Safety sided with the officials\u2019 reclassification, issuing the fine is for high-sticking, not spearing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There\u2019s precedent for exactly this sequence. In the 2021 playoffs, Boston\u2019s David Krejci was given a spearing major that was reduced to a slashing minor on review; Player Safety then hit him with the $5,000 maximum for slashing. Initally a major, downgraded after review, with a fine handed out by the league.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The fine to Rodrigues is the maximum allowable under the CBA without a formal hearing.<\/p>\n
The New Jersey Devils defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4-1. Officials for the game were referees Francois St. Laurent (#8) and recently-promoted Stephen Hiff (#33), with Julien Fournier (#56) and Brandon Grillo (#75) on lines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Jersey Devils forward Evan Rodrigues has been fined $5,000 for high-sticking Vancouver Canucks center Marco Rossi on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5128],"tags":[894,5,4,893,27,5313],"class_list":["post-684462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver-canucks","tag-canucks","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-vancouver","tag-vancouver-canucks","tag-vancouvercanucks"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117424163664500202","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684462","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=684462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}