The NHL’s Department of Player Safety has suspended Vegas Golden Knights forward Ryan Reaves for two games.
In Vegas’ blowout loss to the Colorado on Sunday night, Reaves ragdolled Avs defender Ryan Graves, pulling a chunk of Graves’ hair out on the way down.
From the NHL:
Earlier in the game, Graves was assessed a two-minute penalty for injuring Mattias Janmark. The Knights were down 6-1 at the time of Reaves’ ejection, eventually losing 7-1, thanks in part to the resulting nine-minute power play.
Reaves’ penalty invited some comparison to Tom Wilson’s offense from the end of the regular season, in which Wilson punched the back of Rangers forward Pavel Buchnevich‘s head, then moments later tackled forward Artemi Panarin to the ice. The department of player safety declined to give Wilson additional discipline for the Panarin encounter, which took place during a line brawl and was initiated by Panarin jumping on Wilson’s back.
Tom Wilson gets a 10-minute misconduct for punching Buchnevich in the head on the ground and body slamming Panarin pic.twitter.com/fg2HRej8yD
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) May 4, 2021
In contrast, Reaves initiated the assault with Graves with punches to the back of the head (unanswered), then forced Graves to the ice headfirst, then continued to put pressure on Graves’ head. And there was hair-pulling. “Both the officials and Reaves acknowledge a chunk of Graves’ hair was pulled out by Reaves,” the NHL video states.
Game Two between Colorado and Vegas is on Wednesday.
Screenshot courtesy of NBC Sports
