Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse is automatically suspended for one game for instigating while coach Jay Woodcroft is fined $10,00
The temperature just got cranked up a notch in the Western Conference semifinal between the Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights.
Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse is automatically suspended for one game for instigating in the final five minutes of regulation, the NHL’s department of player safety announced Thursday afternoon.
Under rule 46.21 of the NHL rulebook, “A player who is deemed to be the instigator of an altercation in the final five minuets of regulation time or at anytime in overtime shall be suspended for one game, pending a review of the incident.”
The rulebook also states that the director of hockey operations can decide not to enforce the suspension if the incident wasn’t related to the score, previous incidents in the game or prior matchups, retaliatory or “message sending” in any way. In this case, the suspension was withheld, and Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft was also fined $10,000 as per the rule.
Nurse was given a fighting major, an instigating minor and a 10-minute misconduct for instigating with 50 seconds left in the game after dropping the gloves with Vegas D-man Nicolas Hague. By that point, Edmonton led the game 4-1, and five players were already given misconducts in some fashion.
In last night’s press conference after the game, Vegas captain Mark Stone told reporters he thought Hague asked Nurse if he wanted to fight after the faceoff but said Nurse jumped him.
Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo was also given a major slashing penalty and game misconduct 37 seconds earlier in the action after whacking Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl. He has a hearing with the NHL player safety department on Thursday.
There are still two to three games left in this series, which the Oilers tied at 2-2 on Wednesday night. They’re right back at it again on Friday at 10 p.m. ET.
