Both the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues could be down a man Saturday night in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.
The Bruins still don’t yet know the status of defenseman Matt Grzelcyk who left the Game 2 loss with an injury. Grzelcyk’s head was bounced off the glass after taking a heavy check from Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist. Officials assessed Sundqvist a minor penalty, but he might be looking at more discipline as the NHL Department of Player Safety announced Thursday that Sundqvist will have a hearing for his hit.
The Bruins largely avoided commenting too much on the hit following their series-tying overtime loss, but B’s forward David Backes suggested a suspension should be considered.
“I don’t think that’s a hit we want in our game, I think it’s from behind, elevated in to his head into the glass,” Backes said. “If that’s a two-minute penalty, there’s going to be a shortage of defensemen in this series by the end of it. That’s in somebody else’s hands, that’s something that I think that if I’m making that hit, I’m probably watching from the bleachers for a few. But we will see what happens with their player.”
We’ll soon find out whether the NHL agrees.
Grzelcyk, meanwhile, went to the hospital for tests, and the Bruins didn’t offer much more in the way of update on his condition after the game.
