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Zac Rinaldo avoids suspension for ‘excellent’ hit vs. Flyers (Video)
The general consensus on Wednesday night was that the hit delivered by Zac Rinaldo of the Boston Bruins against his old Philadelphia Flyers teammate Sean Couturier was that it was a malicious hit worthy of a game misconduct.
Did it rise to the level of supplemental discipline? Opinions were more varied.
Well, we have one more opinion now, and it’s that from the Department of Player Safety, which has opted not to suspend Rinaldo, and released a video explaining why.
“While we support the call made by the official on the ice, the Department of Player Safety has determined that there will be no supplemental discipline for Zac Rinaldo,” said Patrick Burke, director of player safety.
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The NHL said it analyzed the hit for “four possible infractions”:
1. Elbowing? It wasn’t.
2. Interference? It wasn’t, as the NHL ruled that Rinaldo initiated his check within a reasonable time frame after Couturier released the puck.
3. Illegal check to the head? Nope, as the head contact wasn’t a result of Rinaldo’s hit, whose approach was “excellent” according to the video.
4. Charging? Not for supplemental discipline, as they found he didn’t “launch himself” into the hit.
As much as we’d like another round of costly education for Rinaldo, we can’t say we disagree with the DoPS call here.
Was it a charge? Totally. Was it worthy of a game misconduct? Based on distance and impact, it’s a judgment call by the official. Based on the aftermath, of course he’s getting a major, which carries with it a gamer.
But as far as a suspension goes, the issue for me is what Adam McQuaid is doing on this play, which is basically standing Couturier up as Rinaldo comes charging in. Rinaldo doesn’t target the head but the hit’s higher than it would have been without McQuaid as a mitigating circumstance. As Rinaldo’s approach was “excellent,” apparently.
“I saw the puck coming around the boards and I thought he still had full control of the puck, and I just tried to deliver a body check,” Rinaldo said.
Asked whether he felt he actually did lay a clean hit, Rinaldo reiterated, “That’s what I was trying to do, yeah: deliver a clean hit, just go through the body. It’s a part of the game, so that’s what I tried to do.”
Please keep in mind that the Department of Player Safety visited with Rinaldo earlier this season to explain, in no uncertain terms, how they wanted him to approach hitting in the NHL. That the first incident following that discussion involved no suspension and an “excellent” check is either a matter of convenient timing, coincidence or effective reprogramming, depending on how you feel about these things.
The bottom line is that Rinaldo didn’t deserve a suspension. Which might be the first time those words have been strung together in that order.
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