Austin Watson Will Not Face Supplemental Discipline for High Hit on Tyler Motte
Tyler Motte left the New York Rangers’ game on Thursday vs. the Ottawa Senators with an upper-body injury after his head was picked off by Austin Watson. Today it was announced that Watson will not face any form of supplemental discipline for his actions.
No NHL Player Safety hearing for @Senators F Austin Watson after his major penalty against @NYRangers last night.
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) March 3, 2023
It was determined the play wasn't charging and criteria didn't rise to Illegal Check to the Head. North/south hit through the body with unavoidable head contact.
The league deemed that the hit wasn’t an illegal check to the head, and it was unavoidable contact. Well, that’s pretty suspect considering it was a scenario in which Watson wasn’t even playing the puck, and after a video review it was determined that the hit was bad enough to have him ejected from the game.
Apparently this is a “legal check to the head” pic.twitter.com/kMksc94Wu9
— The Hockey News (@TheHockeyNews) March 3, 2023
At this point we don’t have any updates on Motte, and we are unlikely to get one soon as the team has left for Boston ahead of their game scheduled for tomorrow. Losing Motte would be another big blow for a team that’s already playing shorthanded, but the fact that Watson is receiving no punishment for the incident is a joke.
If Tyler Motte is unable to play in tomorrow’s game in Boston, it will count as the #NYR’s first emergency contest. So they won’t be able to call anybody up until the Montréal game.
— Mollie Walker (@MollieeWalkerr) March 3, 2023