Evgeni Malkin to have hearing for his actions during Monday’s game against the Flyers

Late in the third period of last nights game against the Flyers, Penguins C Evgeni Malkin did something that will surely get him put on the naughty list for Christmas this year — and potentially cost him a few bucks as well.

Obviously this is not good. As a result, Malkin received a match penalty and was thrown out of the game.

As expected, the NHL’s Department of Player Safety will be holding a hearing with Malkin.

It’s not surprising to me that it is of the phone variety, rather than in-person. Why that is surprising to me is due to the fact that he was indeed given a match penalty. If the call had gone unseen or ignored by the on-ice officials, I could see the NHL trying to make their presence known (and maybe embarrass the officials who missed it a bit) and throw a several game suspension at Malkin, In this case, due to the fact that he did receive the match penalty, albeit short served given the time left on the clock at the moment, the NHL tends to count those for something. My guess is a short suspension still, maybe a game or two.

When Chicago’s Duncan Keith landed a stick swing and hit Minnesota’s Charlie Coyle in the face, he received. six-game suspension. Why I see that differently is the fact that Keith’s stick hit Coyle directly in the face. One could argue that the intent is there regardless and go off of that aspect, but this is the NHL we are talking about, where logic never enters the picture. Time will tell if and how long Evgeni Malkin will be on the sidelines after this latest incident.