2:13 pm: Hartman has been suspended for one game as a result of the play, NHL Player Safety announced Wednesday afternoon.
9:07 am: The NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced that Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman will face a hearing today for interference against Winnipeg Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers during last night’s game.
The incident occurred with 8:30 left in a contentious game between the Central Division rivals. Hartman received two minor penalties on the hit, one for interference on Ehlers and one for roughing after the play. He laid an open-ice check on Ehlers after playing the puck, with Ehlers leaving the ice surface holding the back of his head. He did not return to the game.
This isn’t Hartman’s first time in hot water with the Department of Player Safety. The 28-year-old forward has been suspended once before, for a high hit in 2018 when he was playing for the Nashville Predators.
The Wild have nothing left to play for this season with one game remaining. A regulation loss last night and a Colorado overtime loss locked them into third place in the Central.
Still, a potential Hartman absence from the lineup harms the Wild at their most vulnerable position. With Joel Eriksson Ek already sidelined week-to-week and not expected to be ready for the beginning of the playoffs, the team could be involuntarily without their top two centers for their final game of the season against Nashville on Thursday.
They better have a hearing for the cross check against Johansson.
No he got a maximum fine from the nhl.
Bs run by Hartman. He deserves a pretty long suspension for that intent to injure
Watch the game or just the clip? Didn’t take a run at Ehlers at all, he braced for impact and gave him the exploding shoulder. Ehlers had a problem when he expected the same result he had running over Kaprizov 10 seconds earlier in the corner. Ehlers was making a full-stride run at Hartman, who had the puck. Might have even been a legal check for Ehlers to make, but Hartman saw it coming, where Kaprizov had not. Ehlers got what he deserved on that play, not what he expected, but definitely what he deserved there, based on how he was taking liberties all game.
Pionk is another discussion entirely about intent to injure…
The ref’s let this game get way out of hand long before these two plays though. Playoffs are gonna be fun!
Lmao there’s no defending what Hartman did what are you on about
Bud, not defending Hartman. He’ll take the suspension for the hit. That hit had to be made after Ehlers ran at Kaprizov. Stanley injured Kaprizov a month ago and the league did nothing. Ehlers ran at Kaprizov and got what he had coming to him. Not defending Hartman as a clean hit at all, but Ehlers wasn’t a victim in that one.
Hartman punched his ticket to a trade.
I did not see the game last night, but from what I understand, this was basically retaliation for what the Jets were doing to Kaprizov. I don’t think Hartman was worked himself into a trade, as Guerin and Evason like it when players back up their teammates. Now, was this egregious, I don’t know, I haven’t seen it yet. But the game of hockey is a fast, violent sport…and some questionable things happen on the ice. Not condoning it, just stating a fact.
Hartman made no run at Ehlers. Ehlers brought all the momentum. Hartman suspended and Pionk gets a fine for a cross to the ribs? Typical of Player safety department who cant get it right at all!
I don’t see why Hartman got suspended let alone even a penalty on the play when he didn’t even do anything wrong.
All he did was stop and smellers ran into him.
Bigger question is why wasn’t the jets coach fined for telling his goon squad to ” make them pay” for a clean hit.
It was interference but the additional 2 for roughing when he got jumped from behind was a little ridiculous.
Ehlers could have easily avoided that hit but didn’t. If Hartman had turned his head he would have been drilled and Ehlers would have skated away. Pionk is a punk. Crosschecking from behind is the essence of cowardice. Hopefully he’ll get in a serious one-car accident. All in all a ridiculous conclusion to a lame hockey game. Even the Reaves/Lowry fight was uninspiring.
Absolutely egregious! The on ice call of interference was borderline, at best, but to suspend a player who was simply defending himself against a hit that was a second away coming from the other player, is all kinds of ridiculous. To me, I see no intent to hurt that other player, only an intent to make sure he wasn’t lambasted himself. And then to call him for a roughing call, after he was attacked by not one, but two other Jets players – awful officiating all the way around.