Tampa Bay Lightning rookie forward Conor Geekie will have a hearing after he jumped off the bench and instigated a fight in a pre-season game against the Florida Panthers, the NHL announced Thursday.
The incident came in the second period of the Panthers' 2-1 OT win on Wednesday.
The play started when Panthers prospect Josh Davies hit Lightning captain Victor Hedman with an open-ice hit. Davies was immediately jumped by Lightning star Nikita Kucherov in response and Kucherov was given a two-minute penalty for roughing.
Shortly after, Geekie jumped on the ice for a line change and immediately went after Davies, eventually dragging him into a fight. Geekie was issued 19 minutes in penalties on the play, including two for cross-checking, two for instigating, five for fighting and a 10-minute misconduct.
According to the NHL, Geekie's hearing is for violating Rule 70.2: Leaving the players’ bench on a legal line change for the purpose of starting an altercation.
After the game, Geekie said he did what he did to stick up for his teammates.
“It’s one of those things, it doesn’t matter if it’s Heddy or whoever it is,” Geekie said, according to The Tampa Bay Times. “I think anyone gets hit like that, someone’s got to step up. And I figured that I could be that guy. It worked out, but anyone could do it. I’m sure a lot of guys were thinking the same thing as me."
Notably for Geekie, Thursday's hearing is not for an illegal line change which can result in a steeper penalty. As Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman points out, situations like this have, in the past, come with suspensions for one to two games.
Geekie, 20, was a key piece in this summer's Mikhail Sergachev trade with Utah and is one of Tampa's top prospects. The Arizona Coyotes selected Geekie in the first round, 11th overall, in the 2022 NHL Draft and he had 43 goals and 99 points in 55 WHL games last season.
“Whether it’s training camp or not, everyone’s got each other’s backs,” Geekie said. “And I think that’s why they’ve been so successful. I think I was just kind of playing in the moment. And I wasn’t letting him get in the way.”
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