Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes was tossed from Saturday’s game for a hit on the boards to Ottawa’s Josh Norris.
The officials viewed it as a dangerous hit, calling it boarding, and under the terms of the NHL’s rule, they obviously judged the violence with which Norris hit the boards as warranting a major penalty.
Here’s how rule 41, boarding, is written in the NHL rule book:
“A boarding penalty shall be imposed on any player who checks or pushes a defenseless opponent in such a manner that causes the opponent to hit or impact the boards violently or dangerously. The severity of the penalty, based upon the impact with the boards, shall be at the discretion of the referee.”
“There is an enormous amount of judgment involved in the application of this rule by the Referees. The onus is on the player applying the check to ensure his opponent is not in a defenseless position and if so, he must avoid or minimize contact. However, in determining whether such contact could have been avoided, the circumstances of the check, including whether the opponent put himself in a vulnerable position immediately prior to or simultaneously with the check or whether the check was unavoidable can be considered. This balance must be considered by the referees when applying this rule.“
You may not agree, but you can see how the referees landed on a major being the call.
The thing is, when the call is a major and there’s an injury to a player’s head or face, by rule it’s also an automatic game misconduct.
So the moment the officials deemed it a major, they were locked in to it being a game misconduct, and also because Norris’ nose was cut.
It’s perhaps an odd standard, but here we are.
Here’s the rule in full from the 2023-24 NHL rule book:
