Bruins Matt Grzelcyk Ejected For Spearing Caps' Max Pacioretty, So It's Time To Guess If He'll Get Suspended

It's time to play every hockey fan's favorite game: "Will He Get Suspended?!"

Today's contestant is Boston Bruins defenseman Matt Grzelcyk who was dealt a  five-minute major and a game misconduct for spearing Washington Capitals forward Max Pacioretty on Saturday afternoon.

Given the NHL Department of Player Safety's sometimes unpredictable decision-making process, it's time to take a look at the evidence and decide…

WILL. HE. GET. SUSPENDED?!

*Game show music plays*

Alright, kids; here's what we've got:

Late in the first period, Grzelcyk and Pacioretty met up in front of the net and prepared to do a little jousting. It would appear that Grzelcyk took this slightly more literally, and the toe of his stick blade appeared to wind up straight in Pacioretty's groin.

It looked excruciatingly painful.

At first glance, that's without a doubt a clear-cut spear, one that was almost certainly going to mean an early shower for Grzelcyk.

However, is it suspension-worthy?

That's where it gets tough.

I think that it probably is, however, as ESPN's Ray Ferraro mentioned during the broadcast, it does kind of look like Grzelcyk — who is not known to be a dirty player — may have just been trying to tie up Pacioretty in front of the net and simply missed.

Of course, by "missed" I mean he got all of Pacioretty's groin.

That's a compelling argument in Grzelcyk's favor, however, I don't think it'll work. I think the DPoS rebuttal will be along the lines of "You still have to control your stick, bro" and they'll give Grzelcyk a couple of games off.

If that's more than a game suspension I'll be shocked, and if it's more than two I'll be appalled.

As I said, the Department of Player Safety sometimes seems to dole out supplemental discipline decisions using darts or one of the county fair pig races. There's hardly any pattern to base predictions on, so we'll just have to wait and see how it pans out.

Unfortunately for the B's, they lost 3-0 to the Capitals. That's a big problem seeing as they have their old pals, the Florida Panthers, hot on their heels for the Atlantic Division lead.