The Vegas Golden Knights will have another defenseman to replace in Thursday’s Game 6 against the Anaheim Ducks. The NHL Department of Player Safety announced that Brayden McNabb has been suspended one game for his hit on Ducks forward Ryan Poehling in Game 5. The incident occurred in the first period, when McNabb delivered a crushing hit to Poehling while he wasn’t looking. McNabb was assessed a game misconduct for interference, while Poehling’s night was brought to an early end.
Poehling is expected to be out of the Ducks’ lineup indefinitely, though head coach Joel Quenneville wouldn’t specify an injury or timeline to Zac Cavanagh of The Sporting Tribune. Poehling took an exciting step forward on the Ducks’ third line this season. He scored a career-high 36 points in 75 regular-season games and has since added four goals and five points in 11 playoff games. Those marks helped him earn a career-high 15:04 in average ice time in his first season in Anaheim. The Ducks will need to replace a notable part of their lineup as they approach potential elimination in Game 6.
Vegas will have a tough hole to fill as well. They are already without Jeremy Lauzon, who was the only Golden Knights defenseman to record more hits (251) than McNabb (110) this season. Without either defender, the Golden Knights will be without a substantial amount of their physical presence. That will put more weight on forwards Keegan Kolesar and Brett Howden, as well as defender Kaedan Korczak, to make their minutes felt while Vegas’ scorers rest up.
This is exactly what McAvoy would have got if the Bruins weren’t eliminated. This guy put a man possibly out for the rest of the Playoffs and got 1 stinking game for hitting a completely defenseless person while he was nowhere near the puck. This is a sad league at times. The intensity is supposed to go up in the Playoffs but it’s getting ridiculous and the league is choosing to not hold people accountable for their actions. Might be the time to bring up the old offender is out for the same amount of time as the victim theory again. Maybe that will fix it.