Leafs’ Holzer penalized for push from behind; will he see Shanaban? (VIDEO)
The Toronto Maple Leafs are the talk of the town right now, even among the Department of Player Safety. A Leaf was the last player to have a hearing with the Department of Player Safety. He did all right. There's a good chance that the next one will feature a Leaf as well. Will he?
Korbinian Holzer can expect a call from the league after this cross-check from behind on Tye McGinn, which put the Flyers' winger face-first into the Air Canada Centre dasher board:
Holzer was given a 5-minute major for boarding as well as a game misconduct for this ugly play. I'm not confident that will be it.
It's not just about the hit from behind. If it were, I think the Department of Player Safety would leave it alone, as I suspect they will for Claude Giroux's boarding of Phil Kessel earlier in the same game. But the main difference is that Giroux was standing still. McGinn wasn't.
During Brendan Shanahan's time as league sheriff, he's shown a particular dislike for the push you occasionally see as players are attempting to stop after approaching the end boards with speed. When the players's numbers are fully visible, as McGinn's were to Holzer, there's little excuse for a shove during this vulnerable moment, and Shanahan tends to respond with a ban.
You can certainly see why. McGinn's lucky to have skated away without a serious neck injury.
I could see Holzer missing time for this one. Consider the over/under set at 1.5 games.
Follow Harrison Mooney on Twitter at @HarrisonMooney
