Montreal Canadiens forward Brandon Prust will have a phone hearing with the NHL’s department of player safety Friday afternoon after he interfered with New York Rangers forward Derek Stepan Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.
Prust levelled Stepan, who did not have the puck, with a late hit at 2:55 of the first period during the Canadiens 3-2 overtime victory in Game 3.
Blindsided, Stepan was furious as he skated to the dressing room on his own power.
No penalty was called on the play (watch above), and Stepan did return to the game later in the period.
Because Prust’s hearing will be conducted over the phone, the maximum number of games he could be suspended is five.
Rangers coach Alain Vigneault told media Friday that Stepan suffered a broken jaw from the hit and doctors cleared him to return to the game after he underwent X-rays that were negative. He was in pain after the game and on Friday morning.
Further tests after a visit to a specialist revealed the fracture.
Stepan’s status for Sunday’s Game 4 has yet to be determined.
“We looked at it,” Vigneault told reporters of the hit. “The referees missed it.”
Upset over the Stepan hit, Rangers Derek Dorsett and Dan Carcillo both tried to exact revenge on Prust.
Carcillo got into an altercation with linesman Scott Driscoll while trying to intervene in the fight between Dorsett and Prust. Carcillo was ejected and could also face an automatic suspension for making contact with an official:
“He can’t do that, obviously, what he did there,” Vigneault said of Carcillo’s actions, “but we’ll let the league handle that. I believe if a penalty would have been called on Prust, it probably wouldn’t have happened, but there is nothing we can do about it.”
Prust has been suspended in the playoffs in the past.
As a Ranger, the hard-nosed forward was suspended for Game 4 of the 2012 Eastern Conference final against New Jersey after delivering an elbow to the head of Devils defenceman Anton Volchenkov:
“It doesn’t matter [who it was]; it’s a bad hit,” Stepan told reporters. “I never saw [Prust]. I got the puck and I moved it. I even got some strides in.
“It might have been with his shoulder, but he made contact with my face. The main focus is my head.”
Montreal coach Michel Therrien told reporters he was “not concerned” about the league reviewing the play.
[polldaddy poll=8071365]