When Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy was down on the ice after taking an elbow to the head from Florida Panthers forward Sandis Vilmanis. McAvoy needed to be helped off the ice in the first period, and it didn't look good.
Surprisingly, when the puck dropped in the second period, McAvoy was on the ice as Boston got ready to kill a penalty. It was stunning that he was back out there. It was the second time in less than two weeks where the Bruins avoided a major injury to a defenseman when Nikita Zadorov left in the second period a couple of weeks ago against the Montreal Canadiens after landing awkwardly from a hit along the boards.
Back to McAvoy. It was a clear chicken wing to McAvoy's head by Vilmanis with intent. When the dust settled, the Black and Gold ended up shorthanded after Jonathan Aspirot went after Vilmanis and picked up a roughing penalty. Vilmanis picked up a penalty for an illegal check to the head, minor. Boston ended up shorthanded after Marco Sturm picked up an unsportsmanlike penalty for defending his player.
There was a thought that the hit from Vilmanis, coming from a Florida team that is always known to deliver head shots to opposing players, was going to draw some disciplinary action from the NHL. Guess again.
NHL will not be handing out punishment for Sandis Vilmanis head shot to Charlie McAvoy
Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald reported on Thursday morning that there was going to be no disciplinary action on Vilmanis for his hit on McAvoy. Truly remarkable. Vilmanis did not return after the hit. He was ruled out with an upper-body injury, but you have to believe that was Paul Maurice removing him from the lineup so there would be no retaliation. Typical Florida move.
This is NHL Player Safety sending another message that they don't have player safety as a top priority. This type of hit is going to happen again and again until someone gets seriously hurt. By then, it'll be too late for player safety to finally do something about it.