The NHL’s wheel of justice is spinning Friday as the league issued a lengthy suspension to the Rangers’ Dan Carcillo and was set to address separate charges pending against the Canadiens’ Brandon Prust for incidents in Montreal’s Game 3, 3-2 overtime victory Thursday night at the Garden.
Carcillo received a rulebook suspension of 10 games for violating Rule 40.4, Abuse of Officials, for shoving/punching linesman Scott Driscoll when the official tried to guide him toward the penalty box and away from the vicinity of a fight between Prust and the Blueshirts’ Derek Dorsett at 5:51 of the first period.
The Rangers winger, who had been assessed a charging penalty before the fight, received a game misconduct for his action. NHL senior vice president Colin Campbell ruled it a Category II offense, which is described as an infraction in which a player deliberately applies physical force to an official in any manner, without intent to injure.
Prust, meanwhile, will have a 4 p.m. phone hearing with the Department of Player Safety for his late blind-side blow that caught Derek Stepan in the jaw at 2:55 of the first period. No penalty was called on the play, though the league posted a tweet referring to “interference” committed by Montreal’s No. 8.
Stepan, who missed a couple of shifts before returning to play, suffered a broken jaw and will have surgery, Coach Alain Vigneault revealed Friday.
“Step is injured [by] the same player who called [Chris] Kreider’s [collison] with Price accidentally on purpose,” Vigneault said. “This was a late hit, everything we want to get out of the game.”
Stephane Quintal, who is the acting/interim chief justice in the wake of VP Brendan Shanahan’s exit to the Toronto presidency, will chair the phone hearing. When he was a member of the Rangers, Prust was suspended for Game 4 of the 2012 conference finals for an elbow to the head of New Jersey defenseman Anton Volchenkov.
Vigneault also called Carcillo’s actions “inexcusable.”
“He’s going to pay a big price for it,” Vigneault said.