Toronto Maple Leafs captain and United States gold medal-winning star Auston Matthews had to be helped off the ice after taking a nasty shot from Anaheim Ducks captain Radko Gudas on Thursday night.
Gudas was immediately hit wit ha five-minute major for his knee-to-knee hit on Matthews and, after a video review, received a game misconduct for his actions on the ice. “It’s a dirty play,” Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “The league’s gonna obviously look at it, and we’ll see what the suspension will be or whatever happens.”
The league is, in fact, looking into the play and will have a meeting with Gudas on Friday. However, hockey fans weren’t thrilled when details of the meeting emerged.
The official NHL Player Safety X (formerly Twitter) account revealed, “Anaheim’s Radko Gudas will have a hearing today for kneeing Toronto’s Auston Matthews.” Not long later, reporters revealed the meeting won’t happen in person, which means Gudas can’t be suspended for more than five games – a move that angered fans across the league.
“No in-person is brutal. Vicious knee, looked intentional, zillion time repeat offender. Five games or fewer is not enough,” one person suggested.
Another offered, “The fact this is not in person would be appalling if it were not so predictable. Gudas has been suspended four times for 21 games in his career. A player is injured. It was a blatant cheap shot. 10 games should be the starting point given all of that.”
Video of the play showed clear knee-to-knee contact.
Most on social media thought it warranted more than five games.
“It was a tough penalty. It was a penalty,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “I’m not complaining about the call. There was no premeditation. It was just reflexes (that) did it. …
“I’ll leave it up to them (the NHL’s Department of Player Safety). I don’t know. But I know it’s just one of those split-second moves. We’ll see.”
Gudas has been suspended four time in the past: three games for a headshot on Mika Zibanejad in 2015, six games for a headshot on Austin Czarnik in 2016, 10 games for a slash to Mathieu Perreault’s neck in 2017 and two games for high-sticking Nikita Kucherov in 2019.