With a minute left in the game and Montreal leading 4-3, Canadiens forward Jake Evans collected a loose puck behind the Winnipeg net and tucked it inside the post for an empty-net goal to seal the win.
As he did so, though, Jets center Mark Scheifele, who had been skating hard all the way from the other end of the ice, drove straight through Evans with a vicious hit that knocked Evans out cold and resulted in him being stretchered off the ice.
Scheifele was assessed a five-minute major for charging and a game misconduct. The NHL Department of Player Safety announced that Scheifele will have a hearing on Thursday. Notably, it is a phone hearing and not an in-person one, meaning any suspension will not be more than five games.
While it's hard to tell based on available replays if Evans' head was the "principal point of contact," one aspect of the hit many have taken issue is that Scheifele appeared to make no effort to prevent the goal by actually playing the puck -- in fact, his stick moves away from the puck as he prepares to throw the hit -- and looked as if his only intention was to throw as hard a hit as possible.
It's that aspect of it -- that it was avoidable and unnecessary -- that Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo took issue with when asked about the play on Thursday.
Carlo, of course, is no stranger to dangerous hits. Earlier this season, he missed nearly a month with a concussion when Capitals forward Tom Wilson hit him in the head. Similar to the Scheifele hit, Wilson seemed more concerned with throwing a big hit than playing the puck. Wilson was suspended seven games.
"Just circumstantial in the game, it’s not necessary," Carlo said of Scheifele's hit. "It is hard to see. You never want to see guys get hurt. Especially in situations where it could’ve been avoided, that is tough. Overall, I think it’s on the individual player to make the right decision there. You just obviously have a heartfelt, going-out to the player there. You hope that he’s OK.
"I’ve been in that position. It’s not fun. So yeah, I really think that stuff in the game, it just isn’t necessary. There’s obviously times when emotions are high and you might get a little bit of red brain and not really know what’s going on, but I think we all need to have that control."
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy also shared his reaction to the hit.
"Wow. That was a play you don’t see very often in hockey, where a guy comes out the other side, especially with the empty net. I guarantee you Evans did not expect to get hit in that circumstance," Cassidy said. "Five-on-five play, when you come around the net on a wraparound, I think the puck-carrier usually is anticipating some level of confrontation, but I don’t think he expected it at all. I don’t know -- I watched replays, but I haven’t seen it down to the frame if he went through his head first or his shoulder. That’s the part that I’m sure they’ll look at.
"I know he traveled distance, so that’s gonna be brought up. I don’t think, it looked like to me, there was any maliciousness intended in the hit. It just sort of developed, and it was there and he took it. But boy, it was a tough one to take. I hope first and foremost -- I have not heard a report medically if their player is doing well. I hope he is. Obviously that’s the first thing you think of. It’ll be an interesting one, because you don’t see that particular play a lot, how the NHL’s going to handle that."
Canadiens coach Dominique Ducharme said on Thursday that Evans is "doing better," but is out indefinitely with a concussion.