Brendan Lemieux gets tossed from the game for brutal hit on former teammate Ryan Lindgren
Between Claude and Brendan the Lemieux's have a monopoly on NHL family suspensions.
HockeyFeed
Los Angeles forward Brendan Lemieux is likely looking at a call from NHL Player Safety tomorrow after his hit on former teammate Ryan Lindgren of the New York Rangers.
Lemieux absolutely drilled Lindgren on the numbers deep in the Rangers zone with just a few minutes left to play in the first period of tonight's game.
Here's the hit in question:
And a couple different angles:
Lemieux was assessed a five minute major and a game misconduct as a result.
It's safe to say that Lemieux doesn't exact agree with the officials' call though.
To me, this is a dirty hit and I'll tell you why. Yes, you can argue that Lindgren turns away from the hit and opens up his numbers to Lemieux, but if you watch the first clip it's clear that Lemieux has no intent on making a play on the puck here. He makes a bee line right for Lindgren with the intent on making a big hit. Look at his strides, they're short, choppy and he doesn't barely ever have his stick in position to make a play. He's out for a mugging from the get-go.Which, honestly, I'm fine with in certain situations.
But when a guy has his body semi-turned from you and he's two feet off the boards you have to be aware of that and adjust your forecheck. If you can see his numbers you can't just throw a shoulder into him and hope that you catch him correctly. Lemieux knows this certainly because he's actually a pretty good forechecker and has delivered his fair share of good clean hits. This, to me, isn't one of them though and I suspect he'll be getting a phone call from NHL Player Safety tomorrow morning.
As it is, his night is over and he'll watch the rest of the game from the press box. Again, not a situation that he's entirely unfamiliar with. The fact of the matter is that Lemieux is a role player and he'll continue to be nothing more than a role player until he can clean up this part of his game.