Boston Bruins forward Matt Beleskey's ill-conceived slash to the back of the leg of Minnesota Wild forward Jason Zucker in the closing seconds of the Bruins' 4-2 win on Thursday night won't result in discipline for the B's pricey free agent addition, according to Joe Haggerty of CSN New England.
As Haggerty notes, Zucker "went down like a ton of bricks" after Beleskey slashed the Minnesota player as both trailed the play moving into the Bruins zone. Check out video of the incident for yourself...
Zucker stayed down on the ice for a couple of minutes and eventually had to be helped off the ice by teammates. After the game, Zucker was limping, but reportedly able to move around without assistance, according to Mike Russo of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
"He took a slash at the end of the game there - I don't know if you guys saw that or not - but I don't know," Wild coach Mike Yeo said, via Russo. "I don't have an update for you, but [we're] obviously hopeful that it's nothing serious."
For his part, the gritty Beleskey didn't believe the slash was bad enough to warrant punishment - or Zucker's response.
"I didn't think it was that bad. I did slash him, but it wasn't...I didn't try to break his leg," Beleskey said after the game, via Haggerty. "I don't think it did either. Hopefully, he's all right."
While it was a stupid and unnecessary decision by Beleskey and certainly seemed worthy of a minor penalty had it not occurred in the game's dying moments, it also didn't seem overly malicious or like it would result in a serious injury for Zucker.
There's been no update on Zucker as of midday Friday, but based on the fact that he was up and moving around on his own, it sure sounds like he avoided anything significant.
