Bryan Rust has been suspended by the NHL for three games over a check to the head of Vancouver’s Brock Boeser.
The video states:
During net-front scramble at the Penguins’ goal, Boeser looks to collect the puck as Rust skates in from the slot. As Boeser finds the puck and attempts to play it towards the net, Rust loads up and delivers a high, hard check
that misses Boeser’s core, picking his head and making it the main point of contact on a check where such head contact was avoidable. This is an illegal check to the head.
It is important to note that both elements of the illegal check to the head rule are satisfied on this play.
First, the head is the main point of contact as Rust’s shoulder and arm make direct contact with Boeser’s head and it is the head that absorbs the majority of the force. Second, the head contact on this play is avoidable. Rust takes a poor angle of approach, choosing an angle that causes him to cut across the front of Boeser’s body, missing his core. Rust then raises his arm and leans into contact, causing direct contact with Boeser’s head with requisite force for supplemental discipline.
If Rust wants to deliver this check, he must stay low and take an angle that hits through the shoulder and core =, rather than one that makes the head the main point of contact.
The incriminating angle comes from one not too often seen from the top down, compared to the standard replay. Boeser ended up in concussion protocol, per Canucks head coach Adam Foote and has been placed on injured reserve and will be out for a minimum of a week.
The Penguins were not pleased with the league’s decision, calling it “a lot”. Coach Dan Muse talked about it after practice on Tuesday.
Rust had yet to be suspended in his 685 game NHL career. Despite the heavy punishment, it’s not unprecedented to for a first-time offender to be leveled with a three-game suspension.
Last year Trevor Zegras, another first time offender, was suspended for three games for a hit to the head of Michael Rasmussen.
It’ll be a tough loss for the Pens, who have five games remaining until the Olympic break. Rust worked with his usual first line today in practice with Sidney Crosby and Rickard Rakell, which means the teams will have to shuffle some lines around at a time they would prefer not to given how well everything has been rolling in their current four-game winning streak.
Barring an appeal and reduction of the suspension, Rust is eligible to play next on Tuesday, February 3rd when the Penguins play on the road against the New York Islanders. He will miss the team’s upcoming games against Chicago, the NY Rangers and Ottawa.
