Leafs' Max Pacioretty's Hit on Kyle Palmieri May Earn Him a Date with Player Safety

With the Toronto Maple Leafs in the offensive zone in the first minute of the game, Conor Timmins fired a shot towards the goal from the point that was stopped by New York Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin.

He kicked the puck aside to the corner where Kyle Palmieri went to retrieve it in an attempt to get it out of the zone. However, Max Pacioretty had other ideas as he delivered a bone crunching hit along the boards.

Palmieri turned his back towards the streaking Pacioretty, perhaps to better angle himself into making a play as he got the puck to his teammate Adam Pelech before exiting the zone.

It's possible that Palmieri thought Pacioretty would let up on the hit once he saw the numbers, but the Leafs winger, already committed to the hit, followed through anyway, forcing Palmieri's head to connect hard with the glass.

As Pacioretty headed for a change, the Islanders' bench was up in arms about the play and let the veteran forward know how they felt. As you can see from the video below, Pacioretty was mouthing "I went at your head?" as Palmieri clearly felt it was a deliberate attempt to injure him.

Pacioretty has been on the record this year, stating that he has changed his style of play to reflect a more aggressive and physical nature and it has landed to the tune of 72 hits in 24 games played. However, nothing about that hit screamed "head shot" or that it was delivered in a deliberate manner.

Palmieri turned his back to the oncoming Pacioretty and the former Montreal Canadiens captain finished the check body-on-body. The player in possession of the puck has to protect himself, and Palmieri simply did not do that in this instance.

We have seen Player Safety target the Leafs before where other teams may have gotten away without any supplemental discipline. We'll have to wait and see how this all unfolds.

With Palmieri and the Islanders up in arms, perhaps that spices things up moving forward in this one. Something to keep an eye on with two relatively physical teams squaring off on New Year's Eve.