Ryan McDonagh Checks Brandon Prust

There will be no supplementary discipline as a result of the second period boarding incident involving  Max Pacioretty and  Ryan  McDonagh that caused the Rangers defenceman to  miss the final half of Saturday night’s game with  a suspected concussion.  The decision was made following a Sunday afternoon conference call between  NHL Player Safety Committee head Brendan Shanahan and Pacioretty.

McDonagh was playing on the edge during the game’s second period.    At 2:51 he rammed Pacioretty into the boards in front of the Canadiens bench and Pacioretty had  to be helped off the ice by his teammates.  At 4:37 McDonagh high sticked  former teammate Brandon Prust sending him  to  the dressing room for  stitches.   There was  no penalty on  either play.   Nobody will say it out loud, but one can safely assume there  was a measure of retaliation in the boarding which came  at 7:20 of  the  period.

As usual,  the Rangers aren’t revealing anything about the seriousness of McDonagh’s injury.  The team practices Monday at 11.00am in Greenburgh New York.

Pacioretty has a history with the Department of Player Security.  He was suspended three games in November of  last season for a hit to the head of Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang.  Past history is brought into the picture only if an incident is deemed worthy of a suspension.

Here’s the incident

Was the check payback for this?

John Tortorella News Conference After  Game

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