Elliotte Friedman makes his thoughts clear on Casey Cizikas' brutal hit following Islanders' controversy-filled loss

NHL insider Elliotte Friedman weighed in on the controversy surrounding New York Islanders center Casey Cizikas. During Sunday’s game, Cizikas received a match penalty for an illegal check to the head against Dallas Stars defenseman Lian Bichsel.

During Monday’s edition of his Sportsnet podcast "32 Thoughts," Friedman said that he believes Cizikas was judged harshly.

“The way that rule is written is, if you’re going to give a match penalty for an illegal check to the head, it has to be an attempt to injure or deliberately injure,” Friedman said (50:04). “And I don’t see that there.

“I can’t see him getting suspended over that. I can’t. I don’t see that at all. That is not a suspendable hit. And also, it was a big punishment. It was a close game, and he got thrown out of the game. They could’ve used him. There were a lot of weird things that happened in that game.”

The Dallas Stars beat the New York Islanders 4-3. The hit Cizikas was penalized for occurred at 13:26 in the second period with the score tied at 2-2. The on-ice referee assessed it as a major penalty which was upgraded to a match penalty for an illegal hit to the head after the video review.

Bichsel left the rink and did not return. Jason Robertson went on to score his fourth NHL hat-trick as the Stars capitalized on the man advantage during the power play.

“It's never easy when you get a five-minute major,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said after theg game, via NHL.com. “I know we played four against five for three minutes, but I mean, regardless of that, it was probably a key moment in that game. Unfortunately for us, we were not able to kill that penalty."

Friedman speculates about Casey Cizikas’s penalty impact on the playoffs

Elliotte Friedman emphasized the impact the match penalty against Casey Cizikas might have on officiating standards during the playoffs.

“Clearly, Cizikas is a big hitter, Friedman said. "Clearly, he wants to deliver a big hit. Doesn’t mean he’s deliberately trying to injure him (Bichsel). I’m curious to see where that one goes, because I had a couple of teams reach out and say ‘Did you see that one?’ Cause we’re going to see a lot of that in the playoffs and if that’s the standard for the playoffs that’s a big deal.”

Friedman added that some NHL franchises talked to him about Cizikas’s penalty and discussed what impact it might have on the quality of games going forward.