The National Hockey leagued recently announced that the New York Rangers have been fined $250,000 for their comments regarding the NHL’s Department of Player Safety.
Their statement read: “Public comments of the nature issued by the Rangers that were personal in nature and demeaning of a League executive will not be tolerated” said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. “While we don’t expect our clubs to agree with every decision rendered by the Department of Public Safety, the extent to which the Rangers expressed the disagreement was unacceptable. It is terribly unfair to question George Parras’ professionalism and dedication to his role and the Department of Player Safety.”
The Rangers issued a strong statement after Washington Capital’s Tom Wilson punched a vulnerable Pavel Buchnevich and rag-dolled Artemi Panarin. This incident has resulted in Panarin missing the last three games of the season. However, Wilson was only fined $5000 for the “roughing” of Buchnevich.
New York Ranger’s Buchnevich to face hearing with Player Safety
Before the announcement of the fine, the NHL Department of Player Safety announced that Buchnevich will be called for a hearing for an incident that happened in Wednesday night’s game.
Buchnevich drew drawing a major and game misconduct for his dangerous high stick to Anthony Mantha’s face early in the second period. This penalty came after two other Buchnevich penalties, a slashing to Wilson and a high sticking to Zdeno Chara.
It is more than likely that Buchnevich will receive some sort of suspension for the Mantha incident.
New York Ranger’s new GM Chris Drury and Glen Sather hold a press conference
After the surprise firing of President John Davidson and General Manager Jeff Gorton on Tuesday, newly appointed GM Chris Drury addressed the media on Wednesday morning.
Among the issues discussed, is whether head coach David Quinn would return next season. At this point, that is more than a valid question as owner James Dolan was reported as saying that he was not pleased with the direction that the team was heading.
Drury would only respond by saying that “I’m certainly not going to sit here and talk about anyone’s job status in the organization publicly.”
Drury did address how the rebuild was going, saying that “I really believe in what we’ve accomplished since The Letter. We have a lot of good pieces & it’s an exciting time for the org. When the season ends, we’re going to take a look at everything & see if we can take the next step and make ourselves a playoff team.â€
The Rangers return to the ice tonight to face the Boston Bruins. They will finish the season with another match against the Bruins. Both games are in Boston.