As expected, Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is very likely going to be watching Game 5 against the Edmonton Oilers from the press box, and the team's alternate captain will have a hearing with the league on Thursday.
“Vegas' Alex Pietrangelo will have a hearing today for Slashing against Edmonton's Leon Draisaitl,” the NHL's Department of Player Safety wrote on Twitter.
It was a violent slash with a likely intent to, if not injure, at least cause one of the league's best players some distress in the final minutes of the Oilers' 4-1 win in Game 4.
Pietrangelo has never been suspended before in his career, which will be considered, but at this point it's more a matter of how many games he will get, rather than if he will be suspended.
The most likely situation is that the 33-year-old will be forced to watch just Game 5, while the league will uphold Darnell Nurse's automatic one-game suspension for receiving an instigator penalty in the final five minutes of Game 4.
Still, it was a tomahawk slash and an extremely dangerous play, which could cause Pietrangelo to miss Game 6 as well. It's extremely unlikely that he will be banned for the rest of the series, but one to two games should be the definitive outcome.
Also being considered is the fact that Draisaitl has been the best player in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2023, scoring 18 points over 10 games through the first two rounds.
The Oilers evened up the series with the Knights on Wednesday, and Game 5 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Friday is absolutely critical to the outcome of the series.
Expect that the Golden Knights will be without one of their best defenseman in Alex Pietrangelo for the contest.
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