Ryan Reaves snaps in Game 1, cross checks the goalie and drops his knee on the head of Ryan Graves.

There is no doubt the National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety is going to look into this incident and I suspect that Las Vegas Golden Knights forward Ryan Reaves is going to be sitting out for at least a few games in this series as a result of it.

On Sunday night during the third period of Game 1 between the Golden Knights and the Colorado Avalanche, Reaves launched what can only be described as an attack on both Avalanche goaltender Philipp Grubauer and Avalanche defenseman Ryan Graves after a scrum in front of the Colorado net. 

Reaves can not only be seen cross checking Grubauer during the scrum but then proceeds to throw Graves down onto the ice before dropping his knee on the head of the vulnerable defenseman and then continuing to grab and poke and his face with his glove, although the camera angle was not the greatest and I'm not sure to what extent Reaves was trying to do more damage with his hand after the fact.

I won't waste your time, let's get right to the video:

Here is just the replay of the incident:

The biggest problem here for Reaves is this will clearly be viewed as blatant retaliation on the part of NHL Player Safety, retaliation for this hit from Ryan Graves earlier in the night. As you will see in this second replay, Graves takes out Golden Knights forward Mattias Janmark with a huge hit along the boards.

Update: Reaves has been awarded a match penalty which means he will be suspended until he receives a hearing from the NHL.

San Jose Sharks forward Evander Kane is now mocking Reaves on social media over this incident, no surprise given the long standing hatred between these two players.