Sens’ Borowiecki Injures Bruins’ Vaakanainen

Last night during the Bruins game Mark Borowiecki delivered a dirty elbow to the head of Urho Vaakanainen. Vaakanainen was removed from the game and entered concussion protocol. He was playing in only his second NHL game and had played only 5:46 of the game.

Urho Vaakanainen takes a Borowiecki elbow to the face. He’s getting tended to on the bench. #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/aCLBZnFOPL

— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) October 23, 2018

Vaakanainen is likely to be out for a little while dealing with concussion symptoms. This play looked rough and Borowiecki was not assessed a penalty for the hit. Even if the elbow to the face wasn’t intentional the principal point of contact was the head and it should be treated as either a roughing or elbowing call. The Department of Player Safety is having a meeting with Borowiecki this afternoon.

Borowiecki has been suspended by the league before and could face maybe a one or two game suspension for his hit on Vaakanainen.  I can’t tell if it was intentional or not but Borowiecki looked up saw Vaakanainen coming and then proceeded to raise his arm towards Vaakanainen’s head. Typically defending the crease is done with a shove to the middle of the chest or just a clear box-out technique but Borowiecki instead chose to aim for the head.

Now the Bruins will look to fill the 6th spot on their blueline and their options are limited. With Miller, Krug, McAvoy and now Vaakanainen injured the Bruins will need to bring up another defenseman. Their most likely options are Jakub Zboril or Jeremy Lauzon either one would be playing their first NHL game.

The Bruins are back in action Thursday night at home against the Flyers.

Written By Tyler Smith (@TylerSmith4386)