Nazem Kadri could face suspension for throat-slash gesture

The Leafs’ centre depth could get worse before it gets better. In the first period of tonight’s “worst game ever” against the Calgary Flames, a heated Nazem Kadri responded to Flames captain Mark Giordano with some choice words and a throat-slash gesture.

The reaction came after a crushing hit by Giordano, which appeared to be clean, but Kadri felt otherwise. Kadri slowly headed to the bench shaking his head in disgust, before slamming the door and beginning to scream at Giordano. We can’t say for sure what he said here, but “you’re f***ing done/dead” appears to be the accepted estimation. 

This isn’t Kadri’s first incident that involved cursing and a gesture like this though it is his first in the NHL. During semi-finals of the 2010 World Junior Hockey Championships, Kadri gave a similar scream-and-slice to future Minnesota Wild forward Nino Niederreiter and refused to shake his hand after the game. There was initial speculation that the reaction came in response to Nino crossing the line with an offensive chirp, but Kadri later said that Niederreiter’s statement wasn’t over-the-top and that he was the one who crossed the line. Six years later, and history repeats itself in a slightly different way.

The league has dealt with situations like this before, but they’ve never quite amounted to much. Peter Worrell was given a warning in 2000, and Nick Boynton received a single game for his variant in 2010. Discipline, on the whole has gotten tougher in the past few years, however, so there remains a chance that Kadri misses some time.

If he does, and Tyler Bozak doesn’t free himself of his current ailment soon, the team might spend some time with Nick Spaling as their first line centre. That’s great news for the tank, but at the same time, horrible news for anybody hoping to get even a glimmer of excitement out of those games. A team can only be so gutted out before the losing brings no emotion other than pity.