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Suspension worthy? Quincey ejected for high elbow on Kopecky

Kyle Quincey

Just eight seconds after Jiri Hudler scored a goal for Detroit and tied Sunday’s game against Florida at 1-1 in the third period, Kyle Quincey nearly cost his team the game. Quincey delivered a vicious and perhaps suspension worthy check on Florida’s Tomas Kopecky. You can take a look at it and judge for yourself below.

Quincey’s skates left the ice and his elbow appeared to make contact with Kopecky’s head. It’s no wonder that Quincey got a game misconduct as well as a five-minute major for elbowing. Detroit managed to kill off the penalty, thanks in part to Florida’s Dmitry Kulikov getting a two-minute minor for tripping, which led to some four-on-four hockey. The Red Wings went onto win 2-1 in a shootout.

After the game, Quincey defended his actions.

“I don’t know if he slipped, but I think he was falling when I went to hit him and his head hit me in the hip or like low here,” said Quincey, pointing to his forearm. “I just tried to make a good body check and I’m glad he’s OK.”

Kopecky, who used to play with Quincey when they were both members of AHL Grand Rapids, didn’t sound ready to let him off the hook.

“He just elbowed me in the face. I thought that was the kind of thing we want to eliminate from the game,” Kopecky said. “I don’t know if he meant to do it or not … We’ve had meetings to try to prevent these things.”

For his part, Wings coach Mike Babcock declined to offer his opinion on the possibility of Quincey getting suspended because he hadn’t looked at the replay yet. Instead, he only said that he agreed with the referees decision to hand Quincey a five-minute major and a game misconduct.