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Carson Soucy thinks he got away with less discipline for Connor McDavid hit -"More than one game"
Canucks defenseman Carson Soucy opens up about the slash he delivered to the face of Connor McDavid during the second-round playoff series against the Oilers.
Soucy's suspension resulted from an incident with McDavid towards the end of the third period in Game 3. With the Oilers trailing 4-3 and putting pressure on the Canucks to find an equalizer, the game concluded as Soucy and McDavid got involved behind the net.
Even though the final buzzer had sounded, Carson Soucy pushed Connor McDavid, prompting the Oilers captain to retaliate against Soucy by slashing him in the leg.
In response, the Canucks defenseman slashed McDavid in the leg and then aggressively raised his stick with both hands, thrusting it directly into McDavid's face. Here's the clip of the incident:
Additionally, Connor McDavid was cross-checked simultaneously by Canucks' Nikita Zadorov behind the net. Soucy recently appeared on "The Cam & Strick" podcast to talk about the slash and cross-check McDavid to the face.
He explained that it was toward the end of the game where players sometimes try to get a little edge on the opposing team's best player. However, in the game, things escalated quickly from the back, and when he saw the video, he realized it didn't look good for him.
"Yeah, as soon as that happened, I was like, Oh great, I'm suspended. I was like, It is unfortunate because obviously I wasn't going first face when, at the same time, yeah, it's at the end of the game," Soucy said.
Soucy admitted he thought he'd be suspended, probably for more than one game. But he reckoned that the league recognized that his intent wasn't to hit McDavid in the face.
"Unfortunately, I kind of got folded from Zadorov from the back, and then right there, and then I was like, Maybe well, but then I saw the video. That definitely didn't help my cause. So I was like, yeah, probably gonna get suspended here. Honestly, I probably thought more than one game. But I think kind of they saw the intent wasn't to go at his face," he added.
The matchup ended with the Vancouver Canucks winning 4-3. The series went all the way to seven games, where the Oilers eventually emerged the winner.
Initially, Soucy was hit with a minor penalty, but the NHL Department of Player Safety later issued a one-game suspension to the player. Meanwhile, Zadorov was fined $5,000 by the NHL for his actions.
"It's just an unfortunate incident": Soucy on his slash to Connor McDavid's face before suspension
Carson Soucy acknowledged his slash to the face of Connor McDavid as an unfortunate incident, mainly due to the timing of everything. He clarified that there wasn't any intention to target McDavid that high before the suspension was officially announced:
"It's just an unfortunate incident due to some timing. Obviously there wasn't intent to get a player up that high," he said (via CBC Sports).
Meanwhile, McDavid and the Oilers take on the Florida Panthers in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final on Friday. The puck drops at 8 p.m. ET at Rogers Place.
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