Kevin Fiala will have a hearing today with the NHL's department of player safety for his boarding of Matt Roy, last night which resulted in a 5-minute major penalty and game misconduct.
There is no doubt that Fiala is guilty as he clearly gives Roy a shove from behind into the boards in what was a dangerous position on the ice. What compounded the situation was the fact that Fiala caught an edge forcing him to fall onto Roy creating a much greater impact into the boards.
Fiala, knew the seriousness of the play and checked on Roy immediately hoping that he had avoided injury.
It will be up to the league to see what kind of punishment is handed down to Fiala.
We await word on how Kings defenseman, Sean Walker, is after taking a Matt Dumba slapshot to the face. Walker left the ice in a trail of blood and we can only hope that he will have a speedy and full recovery.
Dumba was clearly shaken and quickly went to the Kings bench to apologize to the players on the bench and to Walker as he was helped off the ice.
We witnessed the not so pretty side of the game that we love and today our hopes and prayers are for full recovery.
UPDATE: Fiala gets 3 games for the hit on Roy and it could not come a worse time with the Wild set to play the next four against Colorado. They know now that the first three will be without their top sniper.
In other Wild news, top draft pick, Marco Rossi, has returned to his native Austria and is scheduled to return in 6 weeks. More to come on this as it unfolds.