Toronto Maple Leafs: Zach Hyman suspension shows hypocrisy with player safety
The Toronto Maple Leafs loss to the Boston Bruins brought more bad news as Zach Hyman was handed a two-game suspension for his hit on Charlie McAvoy.
All the excitement around the Toronto Maple Leafs getting William Nylander back seems to have fizzled a bit after their rough 6-3 loss to the Boston Bruins.
Things went from bad to worse when the NHL department of player’s safety handed Zach Hyman a two-game suspension for his hit on defenceman Charlie McAvoy. Judging by the response from Leafs fans on Twitter this decision isn’t sitting well for multiple reasons and there’s justification for it.
It was a poor decision by Hyman to deliver the hit since McAvoy didn’t have the puck and was not aware of him coming, it’s tough to argue against that. The explanation for the ruling is typical of the NHL these days as they said the play was “predatory”/
Hyman will forfeit $24,193 in salary which is not a big deal, where the problem lies for the Leafs is losing a valuable winger for an important game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday.
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Where the issue with the suspension isn’t the decision made by the department of player safety but what they didn’t do for Chris Wagner‘s attempt to take Morgan Rielly‘s head off. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know what his intent was considering Hyman hit their star defenceman and yet the NHL did nothing about it.
The Leafs will need to do some line juggling to replace Hyman and maybe this is the time to make some necessary adjustments after a couple of poor performances. Mike Babcock isn’t the type of coach to make drastic changes but with Hyman out, he has no choice.
It could mean putting Nylander back with Auston Matthews, and moving up either Andreas Johnsson or Connor Brown to play with John Tavares and Marner. What Babcock decides to do will be interesting and they’ll get a good chance to try it out against Carolina before they play Tampa Bay.
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What do you think about the Hyman decision, what should the Leafs do with him out of the lineup and does this impact their chances to beat Tampa Bay this week? Let us know in the comments below.