UPDATE: Tkachuk has been suspended one game by the Department of Player Safety.
#Flames Tkachuk is considered a repeat offender & will forfeit $11,280.49 in salary.
— Dhiren Mahiban (@dcmahiban) December 7, 2017
NHL Player Safety are going to have a talk with Matthew Tkachuk of the Calgary Flames.
Calgary’s Matthew Tkachuk will have a hearing today for unsportsmanlike conduct for actions during last night’s game against Toronto.
— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) December 7, 2017
The incident:
Matt Martin’s reaction:
He calls it child’s play and said that if “You’re going to do something like that, you should make it count.”
Babcock on Tkachuk spear on Martin: "Whatever. That’s junior hockey stuff. He will learn over time. You have to give Tkachuk credit. He played a good game, he played hard. No reason for that stuff." #Leafs
— Terry Koshan (@koshtorontosun) December 7, 2017
The really dangerous play that Tkachuk made, of course, was crashing the net and bowling over Frederik Andersen.
Andersen on Tkachuk crashing the net on the play where he looked initially shaken up: "I don’t think he tried really to avoid me too much but that’s for the referee to decide.”#TMLTalk #CofRed #NHL
— Dave McCarthy (@DaveAMcCarthy) December 7, 2017
And the ref was cool with it at the time, as they generally are in the NHL.
Tkachuk has already received a one-game unsportmanlike conduct suspension this year for his role in the big brawl between Calgary and Detroit where he poked Luke Witkowski with his stick after he’d been ejected, causing him to choose to come back on the ice.
Clearly, the young man needs to learn not to poke people with sticks. He also received a two-game suspension last March for elbowing Drew Doughty. So, he counts as a repeat offender, which affects how much salary he loses if he is suspended, but Player Safety will take his large file into account when deciding what to do with him. One can only hope George Parros does this call himself and tells the kid to grow up.
Now, as for that running the goalie thing…