Boston forward Milan Lucic will have a phone chit-chat tomorrow with league disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan. The topic of conversation: Is there anything more the NHL can do for the Bruins?
We kid, we kid – it’s actually to discuss Lucic’s hit from behind on Philadelphia’s Zac Rinaldo during yesterday’s 6-0 Boston victory. (The other call is scheduled for Wednesday.)
At 16:21 of the second period, Lucic received a five-minute major and game misconduct after checking Ronaldo between the numbers and into the boards. At the time, the B’s were up big, 5-0, on the Flyers.
Clearly Rinaldo wasn’t injured on the play, as he was able to get up and beat the stuffing out of Nathan Horton.
Lucic didn’t think what he did was so bad, as reported by the Boston Herald.
“I felt like I made every effort to take him out laterally and looked at the video and slow-mo’d it and looked at the point of contact, and there were no numbers. It was all shoulders,” Lucic said. “You can see even him, his body rotating because I took him from the right side.”
B’s coach Claude Julien agreed, saying, “[Lucic] let up and a player turned at the last second. It didn’t appear to be a hit from behind.”
Lucic has been suspended before – he received a one-game ban for crosschecking Maxim Lapierre, then with Montreal, during the 2009 playoffs.