Yanni Gourde Appears To Escape Suspension For Hit On Urho Vaakanainen

The Yanni Gourde hit Tuesday night on Urho Vaakanainen infuriated the Boston Bruins, but it apparently did not rise to the level of supplemental discipline for the NHL.

Vaakanainen got back on a puck and passed it away at the end boards and the Seattle Kraken center, who was hot on the blueliner’s trail, boarded him. The defenseman was gashed up, pulled from the game by a concussion spotter and didn’t return due to an upper-body injury.

It took a review for Gourde to get slapped with the five-minute boarding call. While Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy was furious about it, the NHL Department of Player Safety does not seem to be in line with him.

As of early Wednesday afternoon, the DoPS did not announce a hearing for Gourde, which would open up the door for him to get suspended. The hearing announcements come almost exclusively in the morning before 10 a.m. ET, so the fact that there wasn’t one by the middle of the afternoon suggests nothing serious will come from it for Gourde.

There is the possibility he could be fined, with the maximum amount allowed by the CBA being $5,000. That’s a decision the DoPS can unilaterally make, but a suspension first requires a hearing. Announcements on fines usually come in the afternoon.

The Bruins answered the Gourde hit with Curtis Lazar scrapping with the pivot off a face-off, which also sparked a fight between Derek Forbort and former Bruin Jeremy Lauzon. The two sides will meet again in Seattle on Feb. 24, so there might be some more score settling later in the month.