VANCOUVER — And for the sixth game, Radko Gudas returns from suspension. But it will still be months before Auston Matthews plays or practises.
Gudas, the Anaheim Ducks defenceman, returns from his contentious five-game suspension tonight against the Vancouver Canucks after ending Matthews’ season on March 12 with a horrible knee-on-knee hit against the Toronto Maple Leafs’ captain.
The Grade 3 tear of the medial collateral ligament that Gudas caused resulted in major knee surgery for Matthews, one of the National Hockey League’s biggest stars, and re-ignited debate about the chronic leniency of the league’s department of player safety.
“I really hate the way it ended up, the point of contact,” Gudas told reporters after the Ducks’ morning skate at Rogers Arena. “I’m not a fan of that. I never want to injure anybody out there. It’s a hard-fought game. It’s just, yeah, I never want to go out there and hurt anybody. I feel terrible about the outcome. I just committed to the play, and unfortunately that was the point of contact.”
Gudas said he texted Matthews after the game in Toronto, and the Maple Leaf got back to him a couple of days later.
“I didn’t like the point of contact, either,” Gudas said. “That’s what I’m looking at; I’ve got to respect… I’ve got to learn. I’ve got to be better as a hockey player. I never want to go out there and hurt anybody. It’s very unfortunate. I reached out to him, too. We spoke. I never want to see anybody get hurt, so I feel terrible about that.”
What was the phone call like?
“It’s very hard to, really hard, to keep in conversation,” Gudas said. “Just wanted to make sure that (he knew) it was not my intention to hurt anybody.”
A 14-year NHL veteran, the 35-year-old Gudas had been suspended four times previously, albeit not since 2019 when he was issued the last of a series of bans with the Philadelphia Flyers.
But he faced only a telephone hearing with NHL justice czar George Parros — a review process that limited the player’s suspension to five games.
It was an atrocious hit. A defensive-zone turnover by a Ducks teammate had Gudas speeding back to his slot, where Matthews was alone with the puck. As the Maple Leaf was sidestepping Gudas’ charge, the defenceman kept his left knee in place and barrelled through his opponent’s knee.
It was what people in hockey call a “play gone bad.” Gudas probably did not intend to injure Matthews but he is responsible for his actions.
Just eight days later, however, with some players and many fans still questioning the fairness of the suspension — five games for Gudas, the rest of this season and who knows for next year about Matthews — Parros issued only a three-game ban to A.J. Greer of the Florida Panthers, who deliberately injured Calgary Flame Connor Zary by stalking him down the ice and shoving him head-first into the boards.
Gudas’ hit was reckless. Greer’s was predatory, dirty and inherently dangerous. But worth only three games.
Viewed together, these incidents seem to reinforce criticism that the NHL’s department of player safety is as concerned about protecting the perpetrator as the victim. Of course, that has long been the complaint about the criminal justice system, too.
But the NHL is a private workplace. In conjunction with its players’ union, the league writes and enforces its own safety standards, and certainly could make it a safer place for workers by issuing more punitive and dissuasive suspensions in cases where one player has seriously hurt another with an illegal hit or has deliberately injured someone.
Greer and Gudas were assessed major penalties and game misconducts for their hits.
“I respect the league’s decision,” Gudas said.
Later, he added: “I’ve tried to stay on the good side. I stayed for a long time, over seven years since my last incident. So I’m doing everything in my power to stay away (from suspensions), to stay on the right side, to play hard, but be on the good side of it.
“I think every player needs to develop as his career goes on, (get) better and improve in every aspect of his game to stay in the league and stay on the top of those levels. So yeah, definitely development, learning, a lot of stuff goes into it.”
Upon his return to the Ducks, Gudas immediately ran into trouble; he had to skate a penalty lap after being the last player to arrive for coach Joel Quenneville’s huddle at the end of the morning skate.
Of course, Quenneville was asked about Gudas’ return from suspension.
“Yeah, I think that there was nothing premeditated in all that,” he said of the hit. “It was instincts. He felt bad, he talked to Auston, and, you know, it is what it is. I think that we’re moving on, and we’re about trying to get points against this team.”
The NHL will probably move on, too.
