Toronto Maple Leafs forward Ryan Reaves spoke for the first time since being issued a five-game suspension for an illegal hit to the head on Edmonton Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse. Nurse spoke to reporters on November 21, where he said that while Reaves apologized, he has an intention of inflicting pain on every hit on every shift and he didn’t care about the apology.
Reaves wasn’t thrilled about Nurse’s assessment to say the least.
“The only truth he spoke was I go out there to inflict pain. That’s a fact and that’s not going to stop, but I’m going to continue to do it legally,” Reaves said Tuesday.
“Yeah I’m going to keep playing hard, if not harder now and I’m going to keep burying guys. When you get caught by somebody, I think you’re entitled to your opinion and that’s fine. But I think my 900 games, and however many thousands of hits I have speaks for itself. I play physical every game and I’ve been doing it for 15 years and I’ve only had a couple suspensions.”
Reaves didn’t want to speak about the length of his suspension, but provided a candid, honest answer.
“I don’t want to get into that. I already told the kids that Christmas is canceled and I don’t want to get fined again. It’s over and we’re just going leave it at that.”
Nurse provided his honest assessment of Reaves on November 21, during his first media availability after the incident.
“He came after and apologized,” Nurse told reporters. “In situations like that, there’s an onus on the player with the puck to be aware of where everyone is on the ice. With that said, even if you put yourself in a bad spot, there is lots of body on a six-foot-four hockey player to hit,” he said. “Not one piece was touched, other than my head.
“You can argue about the intent. But there are certain guys in the league that — every shift they go out there — they go out to try and inflict pain. I think it’s pretty obvious what’s going on there.”
Nurse missed three games due to the injury and he scored in his return against the New York Rangers on November 23, pointing to his head during the celebration.
Darnell Nurse scores short-handed with 8 seconds left in the first period and Jonathan Quick is NOT happy 🫨 pic.twitter.com/WZbwINCaWZ
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) November 24, 2024
Reaves is expected to return to the lineup Wednesday when the Maple Leafs host the Nashville Predators.
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