NHL declines to penalize Bruins' Rinaldo for hit on Flyers' Couturier

CLAUDE JULIEN was speaking highly of Zac Rinaldo on the morning of Wednesday's contest between Julien's Bruins and Rinaldo's former Flyers at TD Garden.

It was hours before the first meeting between Rinaldo and his old teammates, after Flyers general manager Ron Hextall flipped Rinaldo for a third-round pick this past summer.

Julien told reporters before the game that Rinaldo had the "skill level to be more than one-dimensional."

That need for distinction, of course, derived from Rinaldo's reputation as nothing more than an agitator and sometimes dirty player. Entering this season, he'd been suspended three times for a total of 14 games.

Rinaldo told reporters in September he was "more mature in the sense of when to ease up on some hits."

But he had no sense of when to ease up on Flyers center Sean Couturier just before the first-period buzzer Wednesday, as he came charging in along the boards and launched toward Couturier's upper body, snapping his head back and sending him to the ice for a few minutes, as the period came to an end with the score tied at two apiece.

Rinaldo was given a five-minute charging penalty and a game misconduct for his hit on Couturier.

Couturier did not return and is day-to-day with an upper-body injury, the Flyers said Thursday afternoon.

"It's unfortunate that he got hurt," Rinaldo said after the game Wednesday. "That's the last thing I want to do is hurt someone, and, during the game, that's not my first priority at all. Especially someone that I know personally. So that was the last thing on my mind was to hurt him."

He said he thought he had delivered a clean body check. And after reviewing the play, the NHL's Department of Player Safety apparently agreed.

In a detailed explanation, the department initially said - in a video explanation of why no suspension was given - that it supported the call on the ice. But then, during the explanation process of the four criteria reviewed for suspension, said that the hit "was not charging."

The criteria the Department of Player Safety looked at for supplemental discipline were: elbowing, interference, head contact and charging.

Rinaldo took "an excellent angle of approach," according to the explanation.

"While there is head contact here, the head is not the main point of contact," the video stated.

Regarding the charging aspect, the explanation said: "While Rinaldo does come off the ice slightly after the hit, he does not launch into Couturier in an excessive manner."

Rinaldo has a history with suspensions, most recently an eight-game suspension after a hit to Pittsburgh's Kris Letang when Rinaldo was still on the Flyers last January.

"While Rinaldo has an extensive history of supplemental discipline, that history only comes into play after it is determined that check is worthy of supplemental discipline," the department said. "The hit itself is evaluated on its own merits, not on the player delivering the check."

The Flyers, of course, had a different opinion after the game, without the ability to have reviewed it on video yet.

Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said he didn't want to comment on the hit, but, in the same response, said the phrase "no place for it" twice in reference to the hit.

"We didn't like it, obviously, and we'll leave it at that," goalie Steve Mason said. "We didn't like the hit at all.

"It's not fun seeing a teammate treated like that on the ice."

The Flyers got the last laugh, though, scoring two goals in the third period to send the game to overtime before captain Claude Giroux ended it. The teams play again Jan. 13 in Philadelphia.

In addition to Couturier, backup goalie Michal Neuvirth left after the first period and did not return. He was hit in the mask by the stick of Patrice Bergeron when Bergeron knocked the puck out of the air and scored Boston's second goal. Neuvirth is also day-to-day with an "upper-body injury."

That same "day-to-day" distinction can be made for Brayden Schenn, who skated Wednesday morning, but was scratched two hours before the puck dropped with an upper-body injury likely suffered in Tuesday's loss to Dallas, when Schenn was upended at center ice by the Stars' Antoine Roussel.

The Flyers were off Thursday and return to practice Friday ahead of Saturday night's Metropolitan Division showdown with the New York Rangers at Wells Fargo Center . . . Wednesday's overtime goal was Claude Giroux's sixth as a member of the Flyers, tying him with Simon Gagne for most all-time in Flyers history, according to Elias Sports Bureau . . . Depending on the status of Brayden Schenn and Sean Couturier, Vincent Lecavalier - who has yet to play in the Flyers' first six games - could see his first game action Saturday night. The Flyers did not make any official roster moves Thursday indicating who might miss Saturday's game.