The NHL’s Department of Player Safety has decided that Bruins defenseman John-Michael Liles will not be disciplined for his high hit on Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov on Tuesday night.
No explanation was provided to the public, but the DoPS likely determined that Kucherov dipped his head right before Liles made contact with it.
As we’ve seen in previous suspension videos, whether or not there’s a material change in the head’s position prior to contact -- i.e. whether head contact is avoidable or not -- is often cited as a factor.
Liles insisted after the game that he “wasn’t trying to him up high.”
“I thought I just tried to step into him,” said Liles. “I don’t know if he was falling or if he ducked.”