Flyers' Zac Rinaldo to have in-person discipline hearing with NHL
Flyers forward Zac Rinaldo has been extended an in-person discipline hearing with the NHL's department of player safety, the league said in a tweet released Wednesday morning.
Players are offered the opportunity to plead their case in person, as required by the Collective Bargaining Agreement, for any looming suspension that could exceed five games.
In other words, Rinaldo's hit on Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang - which already delivere a five-minute major and game misconduct - is expected to earn him a minimum six-game ban.
Rinaldo, 24, appeared to leave his feet as he drilled Letang from behind, causing his head to bounce off the glass. Letang, who has a history of concussions, lingered on the ice for a few minutes before wobbling to the locker room with the assistance of the Penguins' medical staff. He did not return to the game.
"I hit him on the back side of the shoulder," Rinaldo explained after the game. "I don't know. The power of my hit made his head hit the glass. I didn't hit him from behind. I hit him from the numbers on the backside of the shoulder."
Defenders of Rinaldo's rambunctious style - which walks the line nearly every game - argue his impact caused him to leave his feet, that his skates were on the ice when the initial contact was made.
"I was going pretty fast," Rinaldo said. "I think me hitting him and the impact of me leaving him threw me up a little bit. If you slow down any hit, you see guys in every single hit. You slow down and dissect every single detail, you are going to see something you can criticize."
Apparently, the NHL's department of player safety saw a lot it could criticize - slow motion or not. Rinaldo admitted he was likely to be suspended, reasoning that Letang is a star player, he left the game injured, and Rinaldo doesn't have a sterling reputation.
In the NHL's eyes, Rinaldo is a repeat offender. He was suspended for four games last April 7, 2014 for an illegal check to the head of Buffalo's Chad Ruhwedel. Rinaldo will fork over $9,146.34 for each game he is suspended by the NHL this time. He was also fined $5,000 previously and suspended for two different incidents in the 2011-12 season.
Strangely, Rinaldo said he would have to take the NHL's decision "with a grain of salt" and also (apparently joking) claimed to have turned the game around with his hit. He forced the league's 29th-ranked penalty kill to work for five extra minutes, though the Penguins did not score.
"Yeah, I changed the whole game," Rinaldo said. "Who knows where the game would have gone if I didn't do what I did."
Chicago's Dan Carcillo was the latest to be offered an in-person hearing. He was suspended six games by the NHL this week for cross-checking Winnipeg's Mathieu Perreault.
The date and time of Rinaldo's hearing has not yet been set - the Flyers were given an early start to their All-Star break and won't practice again until Monday. Rinaldo is expected to serve the first game of his suspension on Tuesday night against Arizona.
"I don't think they should slow it down and dissect every single thing," Rinaldo said. "It happened so fast. I'm not thinking I'm going to hurt the guy and hit him like some people think I'm going to hit him. It was a fast game, things happened so quickly. It's hard to dissect something that happened so quickly."
Tuesday was just Rinaldo's fifth game since Dec. 20, sitting out mostly as a healthy scratch. Ron Hextall inexplicably signed Rinaldo to a two-year contract extension in September, a full 10 months before his current deal expired.
On Twitter: @frank_seravalli