Anders Lee Ejected For Dirty Hit On Devils Captain Nico Hischier

The New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders are both teams just outside of the playoffs looking in. Their matchup tonight could be the difference for either team getting into the playoffs.

With tensions high things got even more out of hand when Islanders captain Anders Lee came in with a knee-on-knee hit to Nico Hischier. Nico Hischier would go down in excruciating pain as the play would come to an immediate stop.

This play comes less than two weeks after New Jersey Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler was injured on a play where New York Rangers forward Matt Rempe was ejected. For Devils fans this has begun a worrying trend of other teams being able to take advantage of their star players without major retribution.

Anders Lee not only had to answer to the hit with a fight immediately after but was also ejected from the game. The Devils were already up 3-0 at the time of the penalty which then allowed the Devils to take away even more time out of the game. Since the end of the game discourse has begun looking into whether or not the hit was dirty enough to warrant a suspension for Anders Lee.

With the Islanders sitting just 3 points ahead of the Devils before this game the race now becomes incredibly close. While the Islanders did lose tonight's game they do still have one game at hand over the Devils which could go a long way in determining each team's fate at this stage. With each team having around 10 games left and being within 5 points of a playoff spot every point will matter.