Winnipeg Jets' Mark Scheifele suspended 4 games for his hit on Montreal Canadiens' Jake Evans (read)

From the CBC website: Winnipeg Jets forward Mark Scheifele was suspended for four games for his "vicious" hit on Montreal Canadiens forward Jake Evans. The discipline was handed down by the NHL's Department of Player Safety during a phone hearing on Thursday. The department explained in a video that Scheifele's play was considered charging due to the distance travelled to hit an opponent. "Scheifele, moving with excessive momentum gained from traveling a considerable distance, finishes his check violently and with unwarranted force into Evans, making significant contact in the process and causing an injury." The video also said the Department of Player Safety determined that Scheifele's intention was not to make a play on the puck. "It is apparent to our department that his intention on this play is to deliver a hard, violent check to an opponent with the outcome of both the play and the game already having been decided." Evans is out indefinitely with a concussion, though he wasn't hospitalized following the play, Montreal interim head coach Dominique Ducharme confirmed on Thursday. After the game, he called the hit "vicious" and "useless." Earlier, Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice said he felt Scheifele's crushing hit was "clean." Maurice says it was a "heavy, heavy" hit by Scheifele on Evans after he scored an empty-net goal in the final minute of the opener of the teams' playoff series on Wednesday. But Maurice argued it wasn't dirty, saying Scheifele's feet were on the ice and his arms were tucked in. Because it was not an in-person hearing, the NHL's Department of Player Safety regulations said any suspension will be for a maximum of five games. The Habs won 5-3 on Wednesday and carry a 1-0 lead into Friday's Game 2 in Winnipeg. Scheifele was assessed a major for charging and a game misconduct. The Montreal player had just come around the empty net and scored with 57 seconds left. Evans, a 25-year-old from Toronto, flew to the ice banging his head, and was carried off on a stretcher.