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Sabres’ Eichel, Flyers’ Voracek get two-game suspensions

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The Philadelphia Flyers will lose Jakub Voracek for two games following his hit on Johnny Boychuk of the Islanders. How will Voracek's absence affect the Flyers' playoff push?

The NHL handed out two-game suspensions to Jack Eichel and Jakub Voracek on Sunday.

Eichel’s suspension

In Eichel’s case, it was a high hit on Carl Soderberg from Saturday’s 3-0 win for the Colorado Avalanche against Eichel’s Buffalo Sabres. Eichel received a two-minute minor penalty for an illegal hit to the head during the game itself.

Here’s the league explanation for Eichel’s two-gamer:

Voracek is/was not happy

Meanwhile, Voracek received a five-minute major, and now this two-game suspension, for a hit on Johnny Boychuk from the Philadelphia Flyers’ 5-2 win against the New York Islanders on Saturday. (You can see the hit and more in the video above this post’s headline.)

After the game, Voracek had quite the comment for Boychuk, stemming in part from an incident between the Islanders defenseman and Nolan Patrick.

“He’s pointing at me like it’s WrestleMania or something,” Voracek said, via the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Sam Carchidi. “Come on, it’s a hockey game. This is a guy who was sucker-punching 19-year-old Nolan Patrick last year at the end of the game, and he’s going to do that. Give me a break.”

Voracek’s response to the two-game suspension was similarly entertaining:

Maybe Voracek can team up with Gritty against Elias and Boychuk at “Wrestlemania?” There’s certainly some “heat” in the feud between Voracek and Boychuk, if you will.

James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.