A scary moment in Dallas on Monday night. Foligno drove Thomas Harley's head into the curved glass between the bench and the offensive zone.
Michael Russo of The Athletic reported the sequence as it happened, with the referees calling a major penalty and going to review right after.
That kind of review in a playoff game is never a quick one.
Harley, 24, was getting fenced off coming into the zone when the contact came.
The curved glass at the bench transition is one of the most dangerous spots on an NHL sheet of ice, and his head hit it with force.
Dallas held its breath. Everyone in the building did.
Thomas Harley is a top-pair defender Glen Gulutzan cannot afford to lose
Here's Russo's report in full. He's the Wild beat, and he called this cleanly.
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Harley finished the regular season with 36 points in 70 games and a plus-3 rating at a $4 million cap hit. He logs the kind of minutes Dallas built its entire blueline structure around.
Glen Gulutzan runs him in every situation. Losing him for any length of time in a series Dallas trails 0-1 is the kind of blow a team doesn't come back from against a top-seven club.
The review process now belongs to the officials. They'll look at whether the hit had intent, whether the contact was principal to the head, and whether Foligno's role in the collision was avoidable.
Five minutes and a game misconduct is the baseline call on the ice. The Department of Player Safety will get the file next.
John Hynes' Wild opened this series with a statement 6-1 road win at American Airlines Center.
Going up 2-0 with a top Dallas defender shelved, and a Foligno suspension hanging over their series, would be the worst kind of win.
Bill Guerin doesn't need the distraction. Minnesota finished 46-24-12 for 104 points and a plus-32 goal differential, and they've been built to go deep. Adding a disciplinary subplot to every game 3 prep is what nobody in the room wants.
The major carries the rest of this period. The suspension hearing, if it comes, carries the rest of the series.
Does Foligno deserve a multi-game suspension for the hit on Thomas Harley?
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