Canadiens’ Jake Evans leaves ice on stretcher after Jets’ Mark Scheifele delivers ‘dirty hit’

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Winnipeg Jets forward Mark Scheifele could be facing disciplinary action from the NHL Department of Player Safety on Thursday. This comes after Scheifele delivered a dirty hit to Montreal Canadiens forward Jake Evans in the final minutes of Game 1 of the Jets-Habs second-round playoff series on Wednesday

Evans was retrieving the puck from behind the Jets net and, just as he was tucking it into the empty net, Scheifele delivered a massive hit that sent Evans flying. Evans ended up leaving the game on a stretcher, but he was moving as he was loaded onto the stretcher.

Due to the severity of the hit, and it being quite clear that Scheifele was not playing the puck, he was given a five-minute major penalty for charging along with a game misconduct.

Evans’ teammates weren’t exactly thrilled with Scheifele’s actions.

“We’ve all played this game long enough. (Scheifele) knows better than that. I know him, and I don’t want to comment too much, we were told to let the league handle it. We trust that we will, but I don’t know,” Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher told Sportsnet’s Scott Oake following the game.

Here’s what Canadiens defenseman Joel Edmundson had to say about the situation, via Sportsnet:

“It was a dirty hit, but the league’s going to take care of it. If he gets back in the series, we’re going to make life miserable for him”

It’s certainly going to be hard for Scheifele to justify this hit to the league. Evans had his head down as he was coming from behind the net and it’s simply a hit that didn’t need to happen

This won’t be the first major suspension of the postseason, as Colorado Avalanche forward Nazem Kadri was given an eight-game ban for an illegal check on St. Louis Blues defenseman Justin Faulk in the first round.