Frank Nazar addressed his hit on Bo Horvat this morning, and the Blackhawks forward isn't backing away from how he played it.
The 22-year-old said he saw the Islanders player heading for an empty net. He was on the far side, so he went to apply pressure and stop the goal.
"I kept my shoulders, kept my elbow in, didn't lunge or reach. Just skated right through," Nazar said.
He also admitted he's still "processing" the suspension. And he texted Horvat afterward, which says plenty about how the moment sat with him.
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The Islanders veteran isn't listed on New York's injury report. That's the one clean piece of this entire mess.
These teams have met once this season, a 4-1 Islanders win on Long Island on Thursday. Chicago left town with a loss and a much bigger headache.
Nazar's defense plays like a student arguing his math was right after the test already came back graded. Even if every step checks out, the mark is on the page.
Blackhawks open long homestand with Nazar suspended and Mangiapane on IR
Jeff Blashill's group can't absorb this. Chicago sits at 1-4-0 and has been outscored 21-10 through five games.
The road was ugly. The Blackhawks went 0-4-0 away from home, and a 4-2 win over St. Louis is the lone result worth keeping.
Relief was supposed to arrive now. Chicago plays seven straight at home, starting tonight against Carolina and running through Oct. 27 against Los Angeles.
It opens that stretch without a forward who'd been producing. Nazar has two goals and an assist through five games, one of those helpers coming on the power play.
His start wasn't spotless either. He's a -5, which fits a team that has struggled to keep pucks out of its own net.
So who picks up those minutes? The cupboard was already light, with Andrew Mangiapane on IR with a lower-body injury and not expected back until at least Oct. 25.
Kyle Davidson committed real money here. Nazar carries a $6,599,991 cap hit, and every game he sits is a game that investment does nothing for a bottom-feeding club.
And the timing is a bad look for a young player who's supposed to be part of the core. Chicago needed him on the ice, not explaining his elbow position to reporters.
Horvat, meanwhile, keeps cashing in. He has four goals in four games, three of them on the power play, for a Peter DeBoer team that's allowed just eight goals all season.
Nazar insists he played it clean. Whether he plays the next empty-net chase the same way, with the league watching every time he closes on a puck carrier, is something Blashill can't know yet.
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Did the league get it right by suspending Frank Nazar for his hit on Bo Horvat?
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