Avalanche forward Nazem Kadri suspended eight games

The NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced today the eight-game suspension of Avalanche forward Nazem Kadri. The hit came in the third period of Colorado’s 6-3 Game 2 win over the St. Louis Blues as he was penalized for an illegal check to the head of Blues defenseman Justin Faulk.

Kadri was given a major and a match penalty for the hit, giving the Blues a five-minute power play while trailing 3-2. Tyler Bozak scored the only goal of the man advantage and the Avs went on to pull away from the Blues late in the game.

The suspension to Kadri is his first run-in with hockey’s law dogs since coming to Colorado via trade from Toronto in the summer of 2019. One of the reasons behind the trade at the time was Kadri’s second consecutive suspension in the postseason after he was suspended for the remainder of Toronto’s first-round series against the Boston Bruins.

That suspension ended up being five games and was his fifth suspension since entering the league. His track record of suspensions goes back to 2013 and his record looks like this:

Nov 2013: 3 games for interference
Mar 2015: 4 games for an illegal check to the head
Apr 2016: 4 games for cross-checking
Apr 2018: 3 games for boarding
Apr 2019: 5 games for cross-checking

Kadri will miss eight games for another illegal check to the head. Here is the video the league sent out with its decision. It is unknown at this time what the Avalanche will do to fill Kadri’s absence in the lineup but we did see J.T. Compher temporarily take his place in the final minutes of Game 2.