Although the Calgary Flames played one of their best games of the season last night in a 4–1 victory over the Boston Bruins, one of the biggest talking points coming out of the game was the controversial ejection of Martin Pospisil.
Pospisil received a game misconduct
Near the end of the first period, after Brad Marchand slashed Jacob Markstrom a couple of times after making a big save, a scrum ensued where Pospisil’s glove and stick end pushed Marchand’s face causing him to fall to the ice.
Pospisil was given a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct, cutting his return to the lineup extremely short.
Many wondered if this would lead to any additional supplemental discipline, but from early reports, it looks like it will not.
Pospisil’s ejection was punishment enough
This shouldn’t be a surprise at all, since the play itself shouldn’t have warranted the original call to begin with. This was clearly a scrum after the play that Marchand initiated by slashing Markstrom, multiple Flames players jumped on Marchand at the same time. Marchand also turns into Pospisil as the Flames forward is looking to cross-check him.
Was it maybe a little high? Absolutely, and it should have been a minor penalty. That being said a major and game misconduct for that play is egregious. There have been countless plays this year that were much closer to intent to injure than that one, resulting in less discipline. I also think that the fact it is Marchand here also plays into it as well since he sells the call pretty well.
The Department of Player Safety probably looked at that list and said that the major and game were enough punishment for Pospisil, but luckily this did not significantly impact the result of the game.
