WINNIPEG — Josh Morrissey won’t be helping his Winnipeg Jets try to clinch their NHL playoff series against the Minnesota Wild on Friday.
The second-year defenceman was suspended Wednesday for one game for cross-checking after a hearing with the NHL department of player safety in the afternoon.
Morrissey’s cross-check to the neck of Wild centre Eric Staal in the first period of Winnipeg’s 2-0 victory Tuesday was “a reckless strike,” the department said in a video decision released early in the evening.
“While we acknowledge Morrissey’s argument that this is not an intentional cross-check to the neck meant to harm or injure an opponent, this also is not a routine motion to box out an opponent,” it said.
“Staal is in Morrissey’s field of vision. There is no ongoing battle between the players. Morrissey is in control of this play and initiates contact. In doing so, Morrissey raises his stick substantially to a level above shoulder height at contact.
“This is a reckless strike to an opponent’s neck with sufficient force to merit supplemental discipline.”
The department acknowledged the 23-year-old Calgary native had never before been fined or suspended in his 164-game NHL career.
Winnipeg leads the best-of-seven series 3-1. Jets players had Wednesday off as head coach Paul Maurice met with reporters.
Maurice said he’d be “surprised” if Morrissey was suspended because there was no intent and it was a missed penalty. He was also thankful Staal played the rest of the game.
Morrissey, who plays on Winnipeg’s top defensive pairing with Jacob Trouba, said after Tuesday’s game the cross-check was an accident and he’s “not a dirty player.”
Staal told reporters a referee had apologized to him, but that meant nothing. Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said the non-call “cost us the game.”
Boudreau had just heard about Morrissey having a hearing before he spoke to the media Wednesday in Minnesota.
“Well, it’s warranted,” he said of the hearing. “I’m not up here trying gamesmanship to get the league to call extra stuff.
“It is what it is though. It was a vicious cross-check to the face.”
Minnesota was already on the power play late in the first period when Morrissey banged Staal with his stick, but no penalty was called so the Wild didn’t get a two-man advantage.
Jets centre Mark Scheifele then scored the first of his two goals with 28 seconds left in the opening period.
Maurice said if Morrissey is suspended, the Jets will adjust as they have all season long when players miss time.
“We may have to flip people from left to right, but we don’t spend a whole lot of time talking about an injury,” he said. “We’d look at this as just an injury.
“We’ve handled it.”
The Jets lost veteran defenceman Tyler Myers to a lower-body injury in Game 3 and there was no update on his status for Friday. Rookie Tucker Poolman took his spot in Tuesday’s game.
Winnipeg is already missing veteran defencemen Toby Enstrom and Dmitry Kulikov. Enstrom has been out with a lower-body injury since March 23 while Kulikov is rehabbing a back ailment he suffered March 8.
Maurice planned to give his players a message about what to expect, and what they shouldn’t do, in Game 5.
“I find with teams facing elimination that there’s a freedom in their game that maybe is not there (normally),” Maurice said. “They’ll push earlier in a game if they get down.
“So we would be aware of that, but the hockey part of that itself, most importantly, can’t change. The game that you play has to be the same.”
THE CANADIAN PRESS