Toronto Maple Leafs forward Bobby McMann will miss his team’s contest on Thursday against the San Jose Sharks as a result of a high sticking incident on Monday night.
Roughly 3 minutes into the 3rd period against Tampa Bay, McMann received a match penalty for swinging his stick and hitting Oliver Bjorkstrand in the head. The high sticking penalty appeared to be in retaliation after a cross-check from Bjorkstrand.
The suspension will be the first of McMann’s career, with the 29 year set to forfeit $7,031.25 in salary which will go to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube told reporters afterwards that he disagreed with the call, and didn’t believe it warranted a match penalty. “From our view on the bench, I couldn’t really see it too well. I’ll take a look at it, but I had a tough time with that,” he said after the game.
Across 29 games for Toronto this season, McMann has registered 14 points (8G, 6A) to go along with 30 penalty minutes. He’s currently in the final season of a 2 year, $2.7M contract, and is set to become an unrestricted free agent at season’s end.
The Leafs will look to make it two in a row when Macklin Celebrini and the Sharks come to town on Thursday in a 7pm ET showdown.
Photo: Erik Forsberg. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.