New York Rangers: Brendan Lemieux has got to go

In the final minutes of Wednesday night’s overtime loss to the Colorado Avalanche, New York Rangers forward Brendan Lemieux was penalized for a hit on Joonas Donskoi.  Now, he faces a suspension.

The hit by Brendan Lemieux was lost in the furor surround the suspension of the NHL season.  If the season was still going, Lemieux’s actions would be the talk of the New York Rangers and their fans.

Today, the NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced that after a hearing, Lemieux will be suspended.  How long the suspension will be won’t be announced until the future of the NHL season has been determined.

A suspension is deserved.  It was a dirty and unnecessary play and Lemieux was clearly at fault.

Unacceptable

Let’s paint a picture.  The New York Rangers need a win badly.  If they win, they will tie the New York Islanders in points and pull within one point of Carolina and Columbus, sitting in the two wild card spots.   They are trailing 2-1 and time is running out.  There are three minutes left in the game and the big question is when the Rangers will pull Alexandar Georgiev in a desperate attempt to tie the score.

At that incredibly crucial point in the game Donskoi shoots the puck and it’s an easy play for Georgiev who gloves it.  There is no scrum, there is no physicality.  All of the players back off the play.  At that point Lemieux skates into Donskoi who is looking at Georgiev and shoulders him in the head.

He gets a two minute penalty for interference and waves his arm at the referee who is giving him the penalty.  “Who me?”

So, now, down 2-1 in an incredibly important game, Brendan Lemieux takes a two minute penalty with 2:57 left.  How stupid can you be?

Saved by a goal

The Rangers successfully killed the penalty and Mika Zibanejad even had a breakaway, but his shorthanded attempt was stopped by Pavel Francouz.  With 12 seconds left Pavel Buchnevich scored an unbelievable goal off a pass from Artemi Panarin.  It was a miraculous finish and took all of the attention away from the Lemieux penalty.

To make matters worse, instead of being stapled to the bench for that boneheaded move, Coach David Quinn had Lemieux on the ice in overtime. It was Lemieux who made a feeble attempt at a stick check on Cale Makar who got the shot off that won the game for Colorado. Inexplicable.

So, Lemieux lucked out, saved by Buchnevich’s goal and by the suspension of the NHL season.  Not so fast.  The NHL Department of Player Safety wasted no time in announcing that they were going to have a hearing on the play.

A history

This will be the third time Lemieux will be suspended, twice in the NHL.  In junior hockey he received an eight game suspension for an illegal check from behind.  The 16 year old Lemieux was playing for the Barrie Colts when he viciously checked Roland McKeown  of the Kingston Frontenacs.  McKeown suffered a separated shoulder on the play.

In November 2018 when with the Winnipeg Jets, Lemieux was suspended two games for a dangerous hit to the head of the Panthers’ Vincent Trocheck.   He received a match penalty for the hit and after a hearing, he was suspended.

This season, Lemieux escaped suspension when he hit Vegas forward Cody Glass with an elbow.  He was fined $2,000 for the hit.

The hit appeared to be accidental and Lemieux wasn’t penalized in the game, but he still drew the fine.  It means the league is watching him.

It also means he is becoming a liability.