The St. Louis Blues may not get much time to breathe after Friday night’s 4-0 win over the Dallas Stars. Brandon Carlo is now staring down the possibility of a suspension after a knee-on-knee collision that drew a five-minute major and a 10-minute game misconduct.
The NHL’s Department of Player Safety is expected to reach out to Carlo and the Blues, and that’s where the real trouble could begin. A call would signal that the league is taking a close look.
An in-person hearing would point to something more serious. The league’s next move should become clearer Saturday morning.
For St. Louis, the timing couldn’t be worse.
The league has been making a point of cracking down on this kind of hit, and with the season just getting underway, it would not be surprising if the NHL wanted to send a message early. That’s why a one-game suspension feels like the most likely outcome.
It would sting, but it wouldn’t devastate the Blues.
A longer ban would be a different story. St.
Louis is already without Logan Mailloux and Tyler Tucker, so losing Carlo would leave the blue line thin and could force the organization into a call-up simply to add another healthy defenseman. If that happens, Calle Rosen looks like the most natural option, given that the 32-year-old is the most NHL-experienced blueliner in the AHL right now.
There is also precedent for the league coming down hard on knee-on-knee contact. Radko Gudas was suspended last March after a major hit on Auston Matthews, and the NHL made clear that the length of that punishment was tied largely to Matthews’ injury. Gudas took a phone hearing and was hit with five games.
This situation does not appear to be on that level. Roope Hintz was able to return to the game, which makes this look more like an injury scare than the kind of outcome that drives a long suspension. That leaves the door open for something lighter, whether that’s a one-game ban, a fine, or the most favorable result for Carlo and the Blues: just a financial penalty.
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