Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Jalen Chatfield will not be further penalized for his takedown of Washington Capitals forward Connor McMichael during Wednesday night`s game.
Sportsnet confirmed on Thursday that Chatfield will not receive any supplemental discipline from the NHL Department of Player Safety following the incident where he slammed McMichael to the ice during a fight.
Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli initially reported the news.
The incident occurred during a heated third period when Chatfield grabbed McMichael`s jersey and forcefully took the helmet-less Capitals player down to the ice.
McMichael was unharmed in the incident, and both players received five-minute major penalties for fighting and 10-minute game misconducts.
The fight between McMichael and Chatfield capped off a seven-minute period that saw a total of 120 penalty minutes handed out, including 10 minor penalties, four fighting majors, and eight misconduct penalties.
The Hurricanes won the game 5-1.
Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery expressed after the game that he felt some questionable plays were missed by the officials leading up to the incident.
`There were just a few plays before (the Chatfield takedown) that, you know … player safety is a big thing,` Carbery told reporters. `Guys are so good at policing each other on what`s dangerous or what`s not and there were a few dangerous plays that start to get… you can feel the temperature raising.`
`There`s a couple subtle instances in that game, when the game is the score that it is, that`s where the refs, if they miss something, that`s where players start to police themselves and go, look, this went on here. I feel like player safety becomes an issue and obviously guys are going to stick up for one another.`
