Milan Lucic was handed a match penalty in the final five minutes of Thursday's game agaisnt the Thrashers, which gives him an automatic suspension pending a hearing.
That hearing, according to TSN's Darren Dreger, will take place Sunday.
"Lucic discipline hearing on Sunday (Boxing Day) for punching Meyer in the scrum [Thursday] night," Dreger wrote on Twitter. "[NHL] vice president of hockey operations] Mike Murphy will handle [the] hearing."
There won't be much optimism from Bruins fans that Lucic's suspension will be nullified, in part because of Lucic's suspension during the 2009 playoffs. On that play, Lucic had his stick in his hand when he punched Maxim Lapierre of the Canadiens. The NHL deemed it to be a cross-check to the face and forced Lucic to sit out a game.
Later that postseason, Scott Walker of the Hurricanes punched Bruins defenseman Aaron Ward with a blatant sucker punch, though Walker was never suspended.
The only similar suspension this season was to Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond of the Devils, who was suspended one game for instigating in the closing minutes of a game.
Following Thursday night's game, Lucic called the hit by Freddy Meyer that precipated the punch "cheap," and Bruins head coach Claude Julien said he hopes the league reviews Meyer as well.
If Lucic gets suspended for one game, he'll miss Monday night's contest in Florida. Even if he gets a two-game suspension, he'll return in time to face the Thrashers in Atlanta on Thursday night, where he'll most certainly be faced with a different type of discipline — that one coming in the form of a team angry that Lucic punched Meyer in the middle of a scrum.
