Morrissey gone for Game 5

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This article was published 17/04/2018 (2200 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Jets will be missing a major piece of their blue-line as they try to close out their playoff series with the Minnesota Wild Friday night.

Defenceman Josh Morrissey has been suspended for Game 5 following a dangerous cross-check to the head of Eric Staal during Tuesday night’s Game 4. Morrissey was called on the carpet by the NHL department of player safety for a mid-afternoon phone hearing Wednesday, and the decision was announced just after 6 p.m.

“This is a reckless strike to an opponent’s neck with sufficient force to merit supplemental discipline,” the league said during the two-minute video.

Morrissey maintained it was entirely an accident and that he meant no harm to Staal, who was shaken up but remained in the game. The NHL disagreed.

“Staal is shifting position in the slot looking to make himself available for a pass. Morrissey sees Staal, and moves towards him, raising his stick. As Staal attempts to move around him, Morrissey raises his stick above his shoulders and makes sharp contact with Staal’s neck,” the league said.

“It is important to note the front of the net is an area of near constant battles between offensive and defensive players. Players frequently use their sticks to establish positioning or to attempt to move an opponent away from the net. Sudden movements by players attempting to create scoring chances often cause defender’s sticks to make contact higher than intended. Sometimes sticks ride up the opponent’s back or shoulder. Neither is the case on this play.”

Winnipeg is already without the services of injured defencemen Tyler Myers, Toby Enstrom and Dmitry Kulikov. Jets head coach Paul Maurice offered no update Wednesday on their status. If none are available for Game 5, rookie Sami Niku would likely be pressed into his first NHL playoff game. He would join fellow rookie Tucker Poolman, who made his debut on Tuesday, along with Ben Chiarot, Joe Morrow, Dustin Byfuglien and Jacob Trouba.

With players from both teams taking a day away from the rink Wednesday, Morrissey’s hit on Staal was the source of plenty of buzz off the ice.

Maurice and Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau both weighed in during media availabilities in their respective cities. You probably won’t believe this, but they didn’t see things quite the same way.

Maurice made it clear he didn’t expect any sanctions for the play, which occurred with Minnesota already on a power play in the first period. No penalty was called on Morrissey, who went on to help set up Mark Scheifele’s game-winning goal while making numerous strong defensive plays in the 2-0 victory that put the Jets up 3-1 in the best-of-seven series.

“I would be surprised. I’m not surprised there’s a hearing. You guys have been running it for a day and a half, pretty hard,” Maurice told reporters at Bell MTS Iceplex.

“There’s a penalty there and very most you might look at a fine. Based on what I’ve seen for (plays that) were either suspended or fined for a stick that didn’t hit the head, and some of these others have, there’s no intent. There’s a penalty, they missed it. I think they’re nervous about putting a team five-on-three because it happened to us the game before and there shouldn’t have been a penalty call and they’re aware of that. There’s no intent.”

Maurice then trotted out a laundry list of other plays during the series that haven’t led to any further discipline from the league.

“I don’t come out and complain about the refereeing. Things get missed. We clearly felt there was intent on the Myers hit, there was absolutely, in my mind, intent on the hit on Trouba from (Marcus) Foligno. I know you all saw it when you weren’t looking at your phones, the (Nino) Niederreiter head-butt to (Ben) Chiarot,” said Maurice.

“There’s no intent on this. It got played. You’ve got a real smart coach on the other bench who has all the focus on that and not on the game now. Why wouldn’t you? Morrissey is a great defenceman for us. If you had a chance to get him out, you’d play it as hard as you could, so I don’t have any problem with that. There’s a penalty there and at very most you might look at a fine but thankfully Eric Staal played the rest of the game, played hard, played well, finished all of his checks, played with an edge. So he certainly was able to come back and that’s a good thing.”

Following Tuesday’s loss, Boudreau told reporters the non-call cost the Wild the game. He didn’t back down when speaking with media Wednesday in St. Paul.

“Well, usually I’m pretty subjective in that, OK, it was a bad call, but we didn’t deserve to win anyway, or this and that. But that had a definite, definite impact on the whole game. If you think that it would have been 5-on-3 and he would have been out of the game, they wouldn’t have had the opportunity at the end of the first, we would have started the second on a power play, he was the one, you know, Nino (Niederreiter) had a breakaway and he made a great play defending,” said Boudreau.

“It had a definite, definite impact on the game. And if you can score on a 5-on-3, then all of a sudden you’re playing with the lead, you’re not chasing the game. It’s different tactics by them and everything else, so from that standpoint, it impacted the game greatly.”

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Boudreau denied any ulterior motives to being so vocal in his criticism.

“I’m not up here trying to be gamesmanship to get the league to call extra stuff. It is what it is though. It was a vicious cross-check to the face,” Boudreau said. “If they stay according to what their plan has been all along, you know, during the course of the year and everything, a hit to the head is a suspendable offence, I guess.”

It turns out he was correct.

“While we acknowledge Morrissey’s argument that this is not an intentional cross-check to the neck meant to harm or injure an opponent, this also is not a routine motion to box out an opponent,” the NHL said. “Staal is in Morrissey’s field of vision. There is no ongoing battle between the players. Morrissey is in control of this play and initiates contact. In doing so, Morrissey raises his stick substantially to a level above shoulder height at contact.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @mikemcintyrewpg

Mike McIntyre
Sports reporter

Mike McIntyre grew up wanting to be a professional wrestler. But when that dream fizzled, he put all his brawn into becoming a professional writer.

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