Jimmy Vesey crushed, Flyers’ Gudas ejected, suspension coming? (Video)

Jimmy Vesey was one of the most high-profile signings in the offseason, deciding on the New York Rangers after several teams heavily courted the rookie free agent.

He’s expected to immediately contribute to the Rangers this season after a stellar college career. Assuming he makes it to the regular season in one piece, of course, which is never guaranteed when Radko Gudas is in the house.

The Rangers faced the Philadelphia Flyers in a preseason game on Monday night. Vesey was skating the puck down the boards in the Flyers’ zone. Gudas had him lined up. Vesey, crouched down, reversed direction quickly, turning his numbers to the Flyers defenseman. Gudas then crushed him.

Gudas was given five for boarding, five for fighting Dylan McIlrath and a game misconduct.

Vesey stayed in the game, and scored the game-trying power-play goal in the third period before the Rangers lost in overtime, 4-3.

So was this Gudas hit over the line?

Said Vesey, via the New York Post: “I thought I had a little more time than that … I didn’t expect that big of a hit. Next thing I knew, I was face-first into the glass. I wasn’t expecting it. Got caught off guard a little bit.”

He’s been suspended before, and some feel it crossed that line:

Travis Hughes of Broad Street Hockey sees it both ways:

Gudas should not have delivered. He had time when he saw Vesey’s numbers and still decided to level the hit.

On the flip side, the fact that Vesey turned into the hit will be weighed here, as the NHL’s Department of Player Safety often takes into account when players put themselves in vulnerable positions such as this. Even further, Vesey returned for the second period and appears to be fine, and rightfully or not, DoPS often takes injury into account when deciding these things as well.

This is a tough one to unpack. It’s a hit with the numbers showing, but were the numbers showing because Vesey decided to pull up and reverse course? Did Vesey cause a borderline hit to cross into illegality? Or was this a hit Gudas shouldn’t have delivered?

Prediction: Gudas gets suspended. If only because the preseason is for message-sending from the NHL,

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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.