Eric Gryba To Have Discipline Hearing Today At Noon

As a result of his devastating body check on Lars Eller in the second period of the Senators’ game 1 win over the Canadiens on Thursday night, Sens defenseman Eric Gryba will have a disciplinary hearing by phone with NHL Director of Player Safety Brendan Shanahan at noon on Friday, ahead of game 2.

Mar 23, 2013; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Montreal Canadiens forward Lars Eller (81) before the game against the Buffalo Sabres at the Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

For most of the pundits outside of Montreal, the hit was widely regarded as a solid hockey hit with incidental contact with the head, resulting in a bad injury after Eller’s face hit the ice.

You can read my initial thoughts on the hit, which have been echoed by many influential hockey journalists.

Former referee Kerry Fraser deemed the hit to be a “clean hit with a bad result” on TSN.

Meanwhile,the Ottawa Sun seems proud of their cover on Friday’s paper, which many people, including myself, think of as very classless.

Whatever the result of the hearing, it will be a very interesting game tonight and emotions will be high in the building.

I will be travelling to Montreal to sit in studio as a guest on the pregame and postgame shows on montrealhockeytalk.com.  As passionate as the guys are about the Canadiens, I expect this to be a big topic of conversation and debate in the pregame show (starts at 6:00 at the link above).