Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Pastrnak suspended two games for ‘unnecessarily’ launching into Girardi headshot

The NHL’s Department of Player Safety has come down on B’s forward David Pastrnak, suspending him a pair of games for his headshot on Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi.

“Rather than staying low and hitting through his opponent’s body, Pastrnak unnecessarily extends up and into this hit, picking the head and making it the main point of contact,” the DoPS explained.

Pastrnak was whistled for a minor penalty on the play, which occurred in the second period of Boston’s 5-2 loss at MSG on Wednesday night.

Girardi left the contest momentarily, but was able to return and finished with 16:15 TOI.

“I don’t really know it makes contact with my face at first, but it is what it is, I’m kind of vulnerable,” Girardi said of the hit, per the New York Post. “He’s going to try to make a hit. He just hit me in the front of the face, so it wasn’t like it was the side-of-the-head hit or something.

“As soon as I got up, I was fine.”

Pastrnak, who previously had no history of supplemental discipline, will now miss Saturday’s game in Detroit and Tuesday’s game in Florida. He’s eligible to return on Nov. 3, when the B’s take on the Bolts in Tampa Bay.

The 20-year-old will also forfeit $10,277.78 in salary to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.