Kadri Suspended for Wild Hit

Maple Leafs forward Nazim Kadri has been suspended 3 games for crashing into Minnesota Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom and knocking him out of the game in the first period of Wednesday’s tilt in Minniapolous. Kadri received a minor penalty on the play.

The Leafs forward wasn’t done with the Wild yet though, he later hammered Mikael Granlund and was tagged with a match penalty to go with an ejection.

By awarding the match penalty referees Dan O’Halloran and Trent Knorr believed Kadri intended to injure Granlund – a notion Leafs coach Randy Carlyle objected to.

“It’s beyond me the five-minute major,” he said. “I just looked at it. (Kadri) made initial contact with the shoulder and the kid had the head down. (Kadri) didn’t have his arms up and he ran into the player and Granlund snapped his head back.

“Obviously the referees saw it differently and obviously when it’s a five-minute match penalty it’ll be reviewed (by the league).”

The ejection worthy penalty though wasn’t what the league offices were concerned about though, the entire meeting was with regard to Kadris contact with Backstrom.

The announcement came out after a 1:00pm est telephone conference call with NHL discipline boss Brendan Shanahan.

Losing Kadri puts Toronto in a tough spot, already missing two of their top center ice men with both Tyler Bozak and David Bolland out with injuries.

The Leafs next game will be in Buffalo on Friday night followed by a return match up with the Sabres in Toronto on Saturday.