Following today’s announcement of a hearing for Flyers forward Dale Weise for his hit on Anaheim Ducks defenseman Korbinian Holzer in Thursday night’s 3-2 loss, the NHL Department of Player Safety announced on Friday afternoon that Weise has been suspended three games for the hit.
You can see the video of said announcement below:
Patrick Burke, Director of the DoPS and narrator of this video, notes that Weise “unnecessarily extends up and into the head of Holzer,” and that Holzer could have been hit legally (in a way that did not make illegal head contact) but was not.
As such, Weise will miss the Flyers’ next three games — Saturday night against Carolina, Monday night in Montreal, and Tuesday night against Buffalo. Burke notes that Weise’s disciplinary history — he has been suspended once before, also for an illegal check to the head — factored into the decision here.
Weise, who was signed to a four-year deal this past offseason, hasn’t had a particularly great first week as a Flyer. He’s tallied no points and just one shot on goal in the team’s first four games, and this hit was really the first thing he’s done that has garnered much attention. Hopefully things start to turn around for him once he’s back in the lineup on Thursday against Arizona.
In the meantime, Roman Lyubimov figures to be back in the lineup in Weise’s stead. The timing of this suspension is rather unfortunate, as the Flyers currently find themselves in a bit of a bind due to injuries to Michael Raffl and Scott Laughton. We’ll see how Dave Hakstol and Ron Hextall decide to handle things from here.
