The NHL Department of Player Safety announced on Thursday that New York Rangers forward Pavel Buchnevich has been suspended for one game after high-sticking forward Anthony Mantha in the team’s 4-2 loss to the Washington Capitals at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. The Rangers visit the Boston Bruins on Thursday (7 PM ET, NBCSN) and face them again at TD Garden on Saturday.
After Mantha whacked him continuously down low from behind, Mantha skated back when the play was heading the other way and got cross-checked in the face by Buchnevich, who earned a major penalty and a game misconduct at 4:39 of the second period. He finished the game with 19 penalty minutes.
Buchnevich, who has recorded 20 goals, 45 points, and a +10 rating in 53 games this season, has not been suspended in his 300-game NHL career.
Mantha was bleeding on the bench after the play but was able to play the rest of the game.
Buchnevich will forfeit $28,017.24. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
By Harrison Brown
The Rags were right though, DOPS is a pucking joke. One game for that, in that game, is a joke.
I disagree, what Buchnevich did was much worse than what Wilson did. I bet had Wilson not done what he did in the previous game, this would have been more than 1 game. The league was probably afraid to assess more so the Rangers stopped crying. How often do you see a player slung to the ice in a fight? ALL the time, and Wilson was in a fight with Panarin. What he did to Buchnevich was low class, but not suspendable. All this is my opinion.
Agree with you and your points in this one, Jimbo.
You just proved my point. DOPS is a joke. Gosts gets two games for barley touching a guy after the whistle but Buch gets one game for deliberately cross checking a guy in the face.
They also had to fabricate new rules to give Wily that 7 game vacation.
DOPS is extreamly inconsistent, which makes them a joke. That is the only point that I agree with the Rags on. They jumped Wily, Wily responded appropriately. Then the industry went physco only because it was Wily.