It's been a rough week for Buffalo Sabres forward Nathan Gerbe. First, he gets his nose sliced by the skate of teammate Paul Gaustad on Saturday night; then tonight against the Philadelphia Flyers, he gets boarded by Marc-Andre Bourdon:
Bourdon was given two minutes for boarding along with the 5-minute fighting major. Gerbe did not return to the game after suffering an "upper-body injury".
The NHL has emphasized that they do not like these hits where players are defenseless with their backs to the hitter. Gerbe takes a peek behind, sees Bourdon and flicks the puck forward, and then is hit. The puck was long gone before the moment of impact and Gerbe did not turn into the boards to solely accept the impact of the hit; he was trying to play the puck as it was coming up the ice.
Via MSG's Bill Hoppes, after the game Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff called for the hit to be reviewed and said Gerbe was not "clear".
In another incident in the game, early in the third period, Ville Leino threw a chicken-wing elbow to the head of Matt Read, which went unpenalized:
Pretty egregious elbow by Leino directly to the head of Read. No attempt to play the body and check Read off the puck. That should be an open and shut case for Brendan Shanahan.