The NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced that Ottawa Senators winger Mike Hoffman will face a hearing for his cross-check on San Jose Sharks forward Logan Couture from Wednesday night.
While the league didn’t specify in its official announcement, it will be a telephone hearing for Hoffman, according to TVA’s Renaud Lavoie. (An in-person hearing would imply that a heavier punishment might be likely.)
It likely helps Hoffman’s cause that he’s never been suspended by the NHL.
That is really out of character for Mike Hoffman.
— Ian Mendes (@ian_mendes) December 15, 2016
Plenty of fans, especially those of the Senators, are unhappy that Hoffman might face supplemental discipline while Marc-Edouard Vlasic may not for his spear on Erik Karlsson (which Karlsson called a “pitchfork to the face”).
There’s some hate brewing between these teams, but they won’t meet again in the regular season.