Drew Helleson’s suspension fate confirmed after knee-on-knee hit on Connor Zary

This one has been tough to watch. During the second period of the game while the Calgary Flames were up 1-0 over the Ducks in Anaheim, Connor Zary had to be helped off the ice after getting kneed by Drew Helleson. The hit was straight on knee on knee, with Zary’s leg bending the other way in gruesome fashion.

The sequence is hard to watch as Zary’s leg completely bends the other way and the camera catches the terrible pain all over his face as he grips onto his knee while screaming for help.

Helleson received a five-minute major and game misconduct for kneeing. On the play, Zary’s teammate Jakub Pelletier also took a two-minute roughing call for defending his friend. Since Helleson was given a match penalty, the league reviewed the incident in order to determine if supplemental discipline would be assessed. On Wednesday morning, insider Frank Seravalli revealed that any supplemental discipline for Ducks’ Helleson is not expected to come for his knee-on-knee hit on Zary last night.

The decision makes sense as it did not look like an intentional attack on Zary. It is just unfortunate that the Flames’ forward was injured, and to make things worse, in front of his mother who was attending the team’s Moms trip in California.

There is still no medical update at this time on Zary, who has been on pace to put up career highs across the board, putting up 10 goals and 12 assists for 22 points in 39 games coming into Tuesday’s contest vs Anaheim.