Alexei Emelin has been in and out of the Montreal Canadiens lineup, but this wasn’t the way they wanted him to keep his legs fresh.
The hard-hitting defenseman received a game misconduct and five-minute major penalty for a late hit on Columbus Blue Jackets forward Matt Calvert on Tuesday.
So far, it sounds like Calvert may be OK.
Calvert back on bench, trainer at his side. Pretty shaken up after that blindside hit. #CBJ
— Shawn Mitchell (@shecky218) December 2, 2015
You can see video of that hit above, as well as a GIF of the infraction via My Regular Face.
Many believe that Emelin should not have been ejected.
Consensus here among all not wearing a #CBJ logo is that wasn't worth 5 & a game. (Is there a penalty for really bad judgment?)
— Dave Stubbs 🇨🇦 (@Dave_Stubbs) December 2, 2015
That's a late hit by Emelin. That said, pretty harsh punishment. Stepan effect?
— Conor McKenna (@mckennaconor) December 2, 2015
Update: It wasn’t the only debatable hit of this game, as you can see from this knee-to-knee by Nick Foligno on Tomas Fleischmann.