The NHL Department of Player Safety has announced that Toronto Maple Leafs forward Leo Komarov will have a phone hearing Friday for an elbowing infraction against New York Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh.
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Komarov will forfeit $47,580.66 in salary during the suspension.
“It is Komarov”s third season in Toronto.
“I’m not trying to hurt people”, he added. “Sometimes it goes like it goes.”. The hit left McDonagh on the ice and saw New York’s Kevin Klein drop his gloves to engage the Toronto forward.
The scoring for the Leafs and the leader for body checking was given a misconduct and was ejected from the game for his actions while McDonagh has not played the last two periods as a precaution. His absence for the next three games further depletes a Leafs lineup that’s already missing forwards Tyler Bozak, James van Riemsdyk and Joffrey Lupul, among others.
This is the first career suspension for Komarov.
“Earlier on Friday, Komarov told the Canadian Press: “I feel sorry for my teammates because I let them down ” and I feel real sorry about Ryan, too ” I hope he”s OK.
The Rangers did not practice Friday and the team did not have an update on McDonagh’s status.
Leafs coach Mike Babcock described the situation as “unfortunate” because of possible injury to McDonagh, who was returning from a concussion the day before the incident with Komarov. “He plays hard… he’s never been suspended in my mind, but he bumped McDonagh”.
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Komarov’s match penalty, which indicates an intent to injure, subjected him to suspension pending a review by the league. A previous version misspelled McDonagh’s surname in the lead paragraph.
