Connor Zary elbowed D-Petey in the head Wednesday. “Junior” is doing fine.
Turns out the head shot Elias “Junior” Pettersson took to the back of the head on Wednesday looked worse than it actually was.
“He was dealing with the flu before, so they weren’t quite sure if it was a concussion or flu,” Tocchet said after the Canucks’ practice at UBC. “So, for precautionary reasons, we kept him out. (Then) he passed the concussion test and seems okay.”
Tocchet wasn’t a fan of Zary’s reaction to go after Pettersson because of him laying a hard, heavy hit on Flames centre Nazem Kadri. It was a hit that just about everyone thought was clean. In the old days, a dirty play like Zary’s would have sparked a brawl. There wasn’t one on Wednesday, but Tocchet had no issue with how his team proceeded in response.
“Those days are over,” Tocchet said of teams seeking vengeance. “Also, we’re fighting for a playoff spot. … We had a couple of guys go to their bench and say something, but we need two points. Saying that, if it’s October, maybe it’s different, I don’t know.
“Obviously, we got to get that out of the game — a clean hit is a clean hit. You don’t have to jump in for somebody because there’s a clean hit.”
As for the suspension, Tocchet said in general he thinks the league should look at longer suspensions for head shots. In the 1980s, long suspensions were not unusual … although the most effective way was the financial route.
“I got fined a bunch of times. It hurts you. It hurts the paycheque, trust me,” he said.
“Things in the head nowadays are … a very sensitive thing. And I agree (about a longer suspension), because you’re hurting somebody’s career, when you talk about the brain.”