Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse received a one-game suspension for his Monday cross-check to the head of Los Angeles Kings forward Quinton Byfield.
The punishment was issued Tuesday by the NHL Department of Player Safety after it had a hearing with Byfield.
Nurse will miss Edmonton’s regular-season finale on the road against the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday — a contest that will have no bearing on the final standings. The Oilers and Kings are set to square off for the fourth consecutive season in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.
Nurse lowered the boom on Byfield with 5:24 remaining in the second period on Monday. The Kings went on to clinch the No. 2 seed in the Pacific Division with a 5-0 win against the Oilers at Rogers Place.
Nurse was whistled for a five-minute major penalty for cross-checking and a game misconduct for the hit on Byfield, who did not return to the contest.
“No update,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said of Byfield’s condition. “He wasn’t able to finish, that’s all. It doesn’t matter how I saw it.”
The NHL Department of Player Safety, in its video explaining the suspension, stated that Nurse made “the decision to deliver an intentional cross-check that makes head contact on an opponent lying on the ice and was delivered with requisite force for supplemental discipline.
“While we agree with the assertation that this cross-check is not delivered with exceptional force, it is only because of that fact that this incident is not met with much more harsh discipline.”
Nurse, 30, has recorded 33 points (five goals, 28 assists) in 76 games this season.
Byfield, 22, scored a power-play goal in the first period to boost his point total to 54 (23 goals, 31 assists) in 80 games this season.
–Field Level Media
