Columbus Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno was ejected from Saturday’s game against the Colorado Avalanche for a nasty elbow to the head of Pierre-Edouard Bellemare.
That play will result in him missing a few more games.
The NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced on Monday afternoon that Foligno has been suspended three games for elbowing.
Bellemare was diagnosed with a concussion is going to remain out of the Avalanche for the time being.
Here is a look at the play, as well as the NHL’s explanation for the suspension.
The league notes that this hit can not be classified as excusable or accidental contact where Foligno raises his arm as a reflex to brace for sudden contact or to attempt to avoid a collision. Instead, it is Foligno that is in control of the play and initiates the contact, meaning the onus is on him to deliver a clean body check. He obviously did not do that and instead extended his elbow forcefully into Bellemare’s jaw.
Foligno said after the game he did not know he hit Bellemare in the head and was sick to his stomach when he realized he did.
Prior to this suspension Foligno had only been fined one time in his NHL career and never suspended, but the fact that Bellemare was injured on the play almost certainly added some games to Foligno’s punishment.
In 17 games this season he has one goal and six assists for the Blue Jackets.
There were a handful of strong goaltending performances again on Saturday, and you can even gripe about the placement of stars here, as Greiss didn’t have the most saves in stopping 37 out of 38 shots on goal.
Greiss might have been asked to do the most of any winning goalie, though.
Not only was there no margin of error, as the Islanders beat the Panthers 2-1, but Greiss faced a mixture of quality and quantity against the Cats. According to Natural Stat Trick, Greiss faced 20 high-danger scoring chances, and the Panthers’ expected goals were at 4.41. To hold the Panthers to one goal – and only on the power play – is another great night of work for a goalie who probably deserves more hype at this point.
If you look at the bare stats alone, Nilsson had a “better” night than Greiss, allowing one goal on 39 SOG (38 to 37 saves).
We can debate Nilsson’s Saturday vs. Greiss’ Saturday, yet it’s getting tougher to reasonably argue which goalie should be starting for Ottawa — at least if the Senators don’t want to merely tank. Nilsson is now on a three-game winning streak, and his save percentage is up to a splendid .930. He’s shown some signs of being a well-above-average backup goalie for a little while now, especially since joining the Senators.
All due respect to Craig Anderson‘s tremendous accomplishments, particularly helping them come within an OT goal of advancing to the 2017 Stanley Cup Final, but times haven’t been great for the veteran goalie. Anderson’s save percentage is a rough .897 this season, and he’s been putting up replacement-level numbers since 2017-18.
Frankly, tanking might be the best option for Ottawa, so theoretically they could merely split starts for at least a while. If this continues, they won’t be able to get away with even a platoon for a whole lot longer, though.
3. Evgeny Kuznetsov, Washington Capitals, or pick your favorite two-point night
Pointing to Kuznetsov’s goal and assist is a way of moving up the Capitals’ winning streak in the “batting order,” if you will.
The funny thing about the Islanders’ remarkable 10-game winning streak (and their still-active point streak of 12 games) is that, if you were looking at the standings, you might have thought “Huh, but the Capitals are still ahead.” That’s because Washington’s been almost as hot, and with a win on Saturday, the Caps are now at 29 standings points. Which means they’re leading the NHL.
Some might argue this package is the highlight of the night, then.
A specific but cool stat from NHL PR: St. Louis Blues forward David Perron is the first player in league history to score three OT goals before a team reaches 20 games played.
(UPDATE: Foligno will have a Monday hearing with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety.)
However you feel about Nick Foligno‘s hit on Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, it’s tough to watch Bellemare falling to the ice, seemingly knocked unconscious or at least to the point of losing control. It’s never a good sign when you see a player’s neck make a whiplash-like motion, either.
Apparently Foligno, captain of the Columbus Blues, agrees that it’s difficult to watch.
Foligno received a game misconduct and five-minute charging major penalty for the hit, and after Saturday’s game (which Bellemare’s Colorado Avalanche won 4-2), Foligno expressed regret about the head contact that was made.
Full quote from #CBJ Nick Foligno on the hit to #Avs Pierre-Edouard Bellemare that led to a 5-minute major and a game misconduct for the Blue Jackets’ captain: pic.twitter.com/SQmx8AXjTW
Foligno sharing word that Bellemare is OK is promising, although it’s unclear how that might translate to missing time for an Avalanche team that’s already dealing with a lot of injuries.
There are some who weren’t happy with Foligno’s play beyond that hit:
Nick Foligno went hunting earlier in the game and missed. This time around he got an elbow right to Bellemare's head. Bellemare with a classic fencing response laying on the ice. Being helped to the locker room.
Yet, Foligno deserves credit for being open about his regret for the check, even if he gave talk of a possible suspension a no-comment.
The Blue Jackets have now lost six of their last seven games, going 1-5-1 during that span. (The Avs were in a similar spot, as they lost five straight before Thursday, but have now won two in a row.)
If Columbus’ captain sits a game or more, it will only be that much tougher for the Blue Jackets to get back on track. That said, it would be tough to argue that Foligno doesn’t deserve a suspension of some kind. Foligno might even only give a token protest against such a complaint, at least judging by those public comments.
As the Buffalo Sabres and Tampa Bay Lightning gear up for the first of two games in Sweden as part of the 2019 Global Series (airing live on NBCSN at 2 p.m. ET; click here to stream) Gary Bettman announced some exciting matchups – and locations – for the 2020 version.
Boston Bruins and Nashville Predators open their 2020-21 seasons in Prague, Czech Republic: The two teams will face each other at O2 Arena.
Later in the fall, the Colorado Avalanche and Columbus Blue Jackets will play a pair of regular-season games at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland.
That set of games represents the 2020 Global Series, but do not cover all of the overseas action, as the Bruins and Predators will also conclude their training camps internationally as part of the 2020 Global Series Challenge.
Bruins will complete training camp inGermany, and then face Adler Mannheim in an exhibition game in Mannheim, Germany. The Predators will wrap up their training camp in Switzerland, and participate in an exhibition match with SC Bern in Bern, Switzerland.
Pretty cool, and I’d wager that plenty of hockey fans are already cooking up travel plans to kick off 2020-21.
The NHL points out some of the players who will get a chance to play in front of fans in their native countries:
The NHL is a global League, with more than 30 percent of NHL players this season having been born outside of North America. All four clubs feature a number of international stars on their rosters, including natives of the countries they are visiting. Next fall, Switzerland natives Roman Josi and Yannick Weber of the Predators, along with Czech Republic natives David Krejci and David Pastrnak of the Bruins, will be playing in their respective home countries. In addition, Mikko Rantanen and Joonas Donskoi of the Avalanche, as well as Markus Nutivaara and Joonas Korpisalo of the Blue Jackets will all being playing in their home country of Finland, which is also where Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen is from.
Again, if you want a taste of NHL play overseas, Sabres – Lightning airs on NBCSN and streams here starting at 2 p.m. ET on Friday.
It feels weird to hand this one to Nathan MacKinnon alone, as he did have the biggest night of any Av (one goal, three assists [two primary] for four points, a whopping 10 shots on goal), but MacKinnon also left the game with an upper-body injury that Colorado has to hope is minor.
Also, it’s difficult to choose between MacKinnon’s four-point game, heavy on assists, and Joonas Donskoi collecting his first career hat trick. As you’d expect with nine goals, including six goals in the span of eight minutes, plenty of Colorado players chipped in. Both Andre Burakovsky and Cale Makar enjoyed one-goal, two-assists performances, for instance.
So let’s just give that entire group the kudos.
The third of Donskoi’s goals was especially pretty:
Couture matched MacKinnon, actually, with one goal and three assists (also two primary) for four points.
You might want to give Couture the nod over any single Avalanche player, as while Colorado’s onslaught eventually felt like stuffing yourself full at a buffet, the Sharks needed every bite.
San Jose finished the first period up 4-0, and ended the second with a 6-2 edge, yet the Wild managed to make it 6-5 with a three-goal final frame. Minnesota even did so while the Sharks had a strange set of power-play opportunities in the third, with a major slashing penalty to Ryan Hartman mixed with some others to … well, let’s just say San Jose had a great chance to kill any drama.
Couture’s four points ended up being crucial as the Sharks just barely won 6-5. Hey, if you have to work your way out of a sluggish start, sometimes you have to win ugly.
There is a slew of strong three-point nights, even beyond the game mentioned above.
But let’s go with a vintage Lundqvist performance instead, shall we? Yes, the Hurricanes eventually scored two goals, but Thursday presented a classic night where Hank was King again.
Lundqvist made 45 saves, and if you click over to all situations on Natural Stat Trick’s breakdown of the game, you’ll see that the Hurricanes generated a whopping 22 high-danger chances. The Hurricanes peppered Hank, yet he left Carolina salty with a loss.
Highlight of the Night
Chicago Blackhawks forward Alex DeBrincat shows that sometimes you can get the job done while falling down on the job:
The NHL’s YouTube page collected a bunch of OT goals from Thursday, too, if you need some more highlights:
Factoids
The Penguins halted the Islanders’ 10-game winning streak, and did the same to the franchise’s record 15-game run in 1981-82. They’re the fourth team in NHL history to end two 10+ game winning streaks by the same franchise, via NHL PR. This post has more on the Penguins’ rally from behind 3-0 to beat the Isles in OT.
If you got to your seats (at an arena, or your couch) too late and missed the beginning of games, you were gambling on Thursday. Five different games began with a goal within the first 60 seconds, which ties a single-day league record, according to NHL PR.
Via Sportsnet: that J.T. Miller has scored at least one goal against all 31 NHL teams. Not bad for someone who’s still only 26.
Mike Babcock reached 700 wins, and Sportsnet notes that he’s the third-quickest to get to 700 W’s, doing so in 1,295 games. Ahead of Babcock: Joel Quenneville (1,281) and Scotty Bowman (1,192).
Scores
TOR 2 – VGK 1 (OT)
WSH 5 – FLA 4 (OT)
PIT 4 – NYI 3 (OT)
PHI 3 – MTL 2 (OT)
NYR 4 – CAR 2
OTT 3 – LAK 2 (OT)
CHI 5 – VAN 2
COL 9 – NSH 4
CGY 5 – NJD 4
CBJ 3 – ARI 2
SJS 6 – MIN 5
