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.
Following a hearing today, the DOPS has determined that Brendan Lemieux will be suspended for his hit on Joonas Donskoi Wednesday night. The precise parameters of the suspension will be determined and announced once resumption of play guidelines have been established.
A suspension is deserved. It was a dirty and unnecessary play and Lemieux was clearly at fault.
Terrible hit by Brendan Lemieux that should be worthy of a suspension. Blindside + hit to the head + interference. Donskoi potentially injured. Unacceptable. @NHLPlayerSafetyhttps://t.co/hTyRrZEQRZ
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.
Brendan Lemieux #48 of the New York Rangers (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
Becoming a liability
As much as Lemieux is valued for his physical play and his willingness to go to the net, he is becoming a liability to this Rangers team. It’s clear that he has a reputation and it is following him. He was fifth in the NHL in penalty minutes last season and is second in the NHL this season with a team leading 111 penalty minutes. There’s no doubt that he is a target when it comes to the referees and that has cost the Rangers this season.
Is there a Ranger fan who hasn’t cringed when Lemieux has gotten involved after the play is over, anticipating a penalty? How many times has he gotten the equalizer when it should have been the Rangers getting the man advantage?
Although Lemieux has set career highs in assists (12) and points (18) this season he has scored only six goals and has a plus/minus rating of -14. He scored 12 goals last season, mostly the result of an inordinately high shooting percentage of 24.3% while with Winnipeg. For a player who takes a lot of penalties, his production isn’t good enough. Of the top ten players in penalty minutes in the NHL this season, he has scored the fewest goals.
Lemieux has had his highlights this season. He has contributed at key times and his five fighting majors are tops on the team. On a team with a need for physical players, he fills a vital role…for now.
If he scored more he could possibly be forgiven, but the lack of discipline is inexcusable. Taking that penalty was just plain dumb and selfish. With two suspensions and a fine on his record and the referees looking out for the slightest infraction, it’s inevitable that he is becoming a greater danger to the success of the team.
Lemieux is a restricted free agent this summer, with arbitration rights. It would be in the Rangers’ best interests for Jeff Gorton to try to find a taker for Lemieux and replace him with a tough player who has more common sense and more skill.
And we won’t get a chance anytime soon to ask David Quinn why he had Lemieux on the ice in overtime just five minutes after committing that egregious foul, never mind the fact that Lemieux did nothing to prevent the game winning goal from being scored.
