Kings' Tanner Jeannot gets 3-game ban for illegal check to head

Los Angeles Kings forward Tanner Jeannot has been suspended for three games by the NHL Department of Player Safety for an illegal check to the head of Vancouver Canucks winger Brock Boeser.

Jeannot received a match penalty at 10:44 of the first period in the Kings' 4-2 loss to the Canucks in Los Angeles on Thursday night. As Boeser passed the puck near the red line, Jeannot delivered a high hit with his right shoulder that caught Boeser's head.

"For the refs to call five minutes, obviously a dangerous hit," said defenseman Quinn Hughes after the game.

The NHL ruled that Jeannot "cuts across the front of Boeser's body, missing his core and making his head the main point of contact, on a hit where such contact was unavoidable."

The hit met two requirements for an illegal check to the head: that the head is the main point of contact, even though there's contact with other parts of Boeser's body; and that while Boeser was eligible to be hit, Jeannot took the wrong approach to deliver what was deemed an illegal check.

This was only Jeannot's second run-in with the NHL Department of Player Safety. He was fined $2,000 for kneeing Ottawa's Brady Tkachuk in March 2022, when Jeannot was a member of the Nashville Predators.

Under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, and based on his average annual salary, Jeannot will forfeit $41,640.63. The money goes to the Players' Emergency Assistance Fund.

NHL players may appeal all on-ice discipline to commissioner Gary Bettman within 48 hours of a ruling, but Jeannot can't file for a subsequent appeal to a neutral arbitrator because his suspension is less than six games.

Jeannot has one goal and one assist in 15 games for the Kings, who acquired him from the Tampa Bay Lightning during the offseason. He leads the NHL with 36 penalty minutes.

Boeser is tied for second on the Canucks in scoring with 11 points (six goals, five assists) in 12 games.