The Penguins and Capitals shift their series to Pittsburgh for the next two games with the first going on Monday night with each team with a victory. He played a game-high 35 minutes when Maatta’s exit left the Penguins short a defenseman. Orpik says he has no problem with the three-game suspension the National Hockey League levied on him for making contact with Pittsburgh Penguins defenceman Olli Maatta’s head in Game 2 on Saturday night.
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At his hearing with the NHL, Orpik said he admitted his action. You can see the play in the video, via ForTheWin, below. Not only did Orpik knock defenseman Olli Maatta out with a late hit to the head, but he wasn’t afraid to shove Kris Letang in the face after the whistle.
Pittsburgh began that stretch with a 6-2 rout March 20 that ended a three-game home losing streak against the Capitals.
Will Olli Maatta be out for Game 3?
Sullivan said Maatta was “out”, adding that the team would probably have a further update Sunday. They’ll be much more aggressive in Game 3.
As for the Capitals, coach Barry Trotz stated that Orpik simply thought that the puck was going back to Maatta when he hit him.
In announcing the suspension, National Hockey League director of player safety Patrick Burke said the hit was “forceful, unacceptably high and excessively late”.
“It was a bad hit”, Orpik said.
Hagelin put Pittsburgh ahead at the 7:08 mark of the second period, taking a pretty behind-the-net feed from Nick Bonino after Orpik lost the puck in the corner.
“He just finished on a hit”, Trotz said. “I really liked our first period, but their desperation level was just a little bit higher in the second and third [periods]”.
“I’m still amped up, you can ask my teammates”, Pietrangelo said. “It didn’t look good”.
“I’m disappointed, but not surprised (by the suspension length) based on who’re playing and all that”, Trotz said.
“If we start play like dirty plays, we take bad penalties”, Pittsburgh center Evgeni Malkin said. The Pittsburgh people know that.
The series now shifts to Nashville for Game 3, which will be played on Tuesday night. As a former Penguins player, Orpik has relations with both teams.
What’s surprising is that Orpik was given three games for it, considering he hasn’t been suspended since the 2005-06 season. Orpik, who played for the Penguins for 10 seasons, is friends with Maatta, which “made the situation a little tougher”. It helped them go to the Stanley Cup final in 2008 and win it all in 2009. “To be able to come out of Game 1 with a win even though we didn’t play our best 60 minutes is good because we’ll be better in Game 2”.
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“It’s part of the game”, Letang said of Orpik’s post-whistle antics.
