Emil Heineman stuck out his knee with the score still 0-0 in the first period. The NHL officials gave him a five-minute major and ejected him on the spot. His team killed it off, but by full time they had lost 4-0. Heineman’s knee didn’t just end his night. It ended his team’s chances.
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On Saturday, tough scenes played out early at UBS Arena. A dangerous knee-on-knee collision brought a swift, severe response from NHL officials against Emil Heineman. After just two minutes into the first period, the New York Islanders’ player sent Edmonton Oilers’ Isaac Howard down the tunnel in visible distress.
Heineman extended his left knee as Howard was moving across the neutral zone and made hard, direct contact with his left leg. Howard immediately went down and stayed like that on the ice with severe pain. Medical staff soon rushed to inspect the situation. The Oilers player couldn’t put any weight on his left leg at all and had to be helped off the ice. He walked straight into the locker room for further assessment.
Game officials stepped in immediately and assessed Heineman with a five-minute major for the kneeing. A mandatory video review was initiated at the scorer’s table to determine the severity of the contact. After reviewing multiple replays of Heineman’s outstretched leg, the crew went with the five-minute major and added on a game misconduct.
Heineman was clearly unhappy with the final call and threw his stick as he walked off towards the dressing room at 2:22 into the first period. The NHL Department of Player Safety did not announce any further disciplinary action following the game.
The ejection forced the Islanders to play short-handed for the full five minutes and effectively removed a regular contributor from their forward lines for the remainder of the game. Goaltender Ilya Sorokin was solid during the initial penalty kill, turning away three shots to keep the Oilers at bay.
They came out of that five-minute penalty kill unscathed, but the loss of Heineman did have an impact on the Islanders’ line rotations and on the physicality of the game from the outset. Connor McDavid extended his NHL record with a season-opening streak to 14 games. This led the Edmonton Oilers to open their road trip with a huge 4-0 win over the New York Islanders.
Oilers’ Team Open-Up to the Penalty Call
Knee-on-knee collisions carry an elevated risk of ACL and MCL injuries, prompting the league’s strict enforcement. Hence, Edmonton head coach Mike Babcock dealt with the aftermath of the play in his postgame presser. He offered some initial reassurance about Howard’s condition and recognised the sheer visual impact of the incident.
“We don’t think Howard is as serious as it looked,” coach Babcock said. “We’re hoping for a real good kind of recovery day for him tomorrow, and then if he doesn’t (feel better), then we’ll get on with the medical part of looking into it. But they think it’s favorable.”
On the ice, Ryan Shea also spoke about the play.
“It’s tough to see, especially because he’s been playing so well and he started to get some swagger and confidence,” Shea said. “Hopefully he’s back, and when he is, good things happen when he’s on the ice.”
Meanwhile, Edmonton’s senior star Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also shared his insights.
“It’s hard to see a play like that. I’m sure (the NHL’s Department of Player Safety will) look at it,” he said. “But I thought they did a good job of going back and figuring out that it was a major. Regardless, you don’t want to see a guy go down like that.”
Heineman’s outburst upon receiving the game misconduct (he actually threw his stick as he walked off the ice) was also something that drew criticism from those watching. They pointed to the league’s absolute zero tolerance for high-risk kneeing penalties. The Islanders had to take the penalty kill and were forced to play the entire the sequence without Heineman on the forecheck, with no offensive output at all. They simply couldn’t get anything going after they were behind.
Meanwhile, Islanders’ Brayden Schenn opened up about the team’s shockingly poor performance in front of the home crowd. “I don’t think it ever spiraled. We just never had a chance the whole game, ever, to tilt the ice. We never had any momentum throughout the whole game, not once. And when you do that, you’re giving yourself no chance to win,” Schenn told the Post.
The result was a tough one for the Islanders. They lost a key forward to an early game misconduct and then gave up four unanswered goals. The league’s on-ice decision was a clear statement of its zero-tolerance policy for dangerous lower-body contact, with such contact meeting with an immediate and absolute penalty.