We don’t know how long the Vancouver Canucks will be without Brock Boeser, but Tanner Jeannot will miss games taking him out.
The NHL has handed out a three-game suspension to the Los Angeles Kings forward, who delivered a check to the head of Boeser in the first period of Thursday night’s game. Boeser left the game and didn’t return, presumably due to a head injury.
Jeannot was handed a match penalty for an illegal check to the head.
In a video posted by the NHL explaining the reasoning behind the suspension, the league clarified that it deemed the head was the main point of contact and that the hit was avoidable.
“Jeannot finishes a high, hard check that cuts across the front of Boeser’s body, missing his core and making his head the main point of contact on a hit where such head contact was avoidable,” an NHL Department of Player Safety spokesperson says in the video.
“The head is the main point of contact. While there is some contact with Boeser’s body, Jeannot’s shoulder makes direct and forceful contact with Boeser’s head and it is the head that absorbs the majority of the force of this check.”
More to come…