WATCH: Penguins' Bryan Rust injured after Patrick Marleau hit
Marleau was penalized for a hit to the head and may have risked a suspension
By
Adam Gretz
•
2 min read
PITTSBURGH -- San Jose Sharks forward Patrick Marleau ended up playing a pretty big role in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night.
He scored a goal in his first ever Stanley Cup Final game to tie it at two late in the second period, and then delivered a questionable hit on Bryan Rust midway through the third period, knocking the Pittsburgh Penguins forward out of the game.
Here is a look at the play.
Marleau was given a two-minute minor for an illegal check to the head. Now the question turns to if his punishment will end there, or if the NHL's department of player safety will step in and do something else.
The focus will be on whether or not Rust's head was the main point of contact. After the game Marleau said that he was "trying to keep everything down and didn't want to get too high." When asked if he felt it was a shoulder-to-shoulder hit he simply said "I just kind of let him skate into me."
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan had a different view of the hit and called it a "blindside hit to the head."
Rust briefly returned to the game before leaving for good. Sullivan said he is listed as "day-to-day." The result of the hit is also a significant factor in whether or not a player gets suspended.
Rust scored scored another goal for the Penguins on Monday night as part of their fast start in the first period, giving him six goals this postseason. Four of them have come over the past three games, including a breakaway goal late in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals series and both goals in the Penguins' Game 7 win.
The other important factor, and perhaps the most important one, when it comes to potential discipline: This is the Stanley Cup Final, and as we have discussed at length before the NHL is extremely hesitant to suspend anybody in the playoffs because of the importance of the games. The NHL's department of player safety has only suspended 15 players for a postseason game. Since the DoPS was formed at the start of the 2011-12 season no player has been suspended for a Stanley Cup Final game.
You have to go back to the 2010-11 season when Vancouver Canucks foward Aaron Rome was given four games for a late hit on Boston Bruins forward Nathan Horton to find the most recent time a player was suspended in the Stanley Cup Final series. Given that precedent, especially with what has been set this postseason, Marleau missing Game 2 due to a suspension seems like it a real long shot.
