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On Tuesday, James Neal was suspended for this attempted hit on Claude Giroux. Neal chased Giroux down in the Flyers’ offensive zone, leapt slightly, and fired off an elbow into the back of his head. The glancing blow spun Giroux to the ice, ever so briefly.

Neal received a one-game suspension as a result (he was somehow cleared of any wrongdoing for his hit on Sean Couturier earlier in the same shift).

Now we learn that Nicklas Grossmann will miss tonight’s game with what is reported to be a concussion. We will likely never know on which play he was injured… but this one seems like a good candidate, when the ugliest player in the league, Evgeni Malkin, threw out a chicken wing that appears to have clipped Grossmann's head:

You be the judge.

The play stood out (to me) when it happened, but it quickly became a non-issue when Grossmann got right back up.

What do we think the chances are that Malkin would hear from the league over this? 0… 0.2%? Not happening.


While that hit by Malkin may have looked the most suspect, Grossmann also appeared to be shaken up on this hit from Tyler Kennedy later in the first period: