Pavel Buchnevich will have a hearing with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety as a result of his crosscheck to the face of Anthony Mantha.
Buchnevich was given a major penalty and game misconduct for this play, and it is understandable why. You can agree that the Department of Player Safety dropped the ball on Tom Wilson. You can say that Mantha was going at Buchnevich too. But Buchnevich simply can’t crosscheck someone in the face.
Based on the situation and contributing factors, I’d assume Buchnevich gets at least one game, but I wouldn’t be surprised either if he got two games to end his 2020-21 NHL season.
If that were the case, Buchnevich would end his season with 20 goals and 25 assists for 45 points in 53 games played. This would represent Buchnevich’s most productive season to date in terms of points per game at 0.85, and he would fall short of tying his career high in both goals and points by one each.
