On Monday, the NHL’s Department of Player Safety suspended Andrew Ference for three games as punishment for his check to the head of Vancouver Canucks forward Zack Kassian on Saturday night. Keith Aulie has been recalled to take his spot on the roster. 

This is a pretty reasonable consequence of a check to the head in the modern NHL. The league has been taking widely-publicized action to try and remove headshots from the game. Given what we know about concussions and the long-term impact of sustained blows to the head, that’s entirely commendable in my view. The same things that Scott Stevens was applauded for over his career are seen as over the line now, and that’s a healthy progression for the league.

So Ference’s shot on Kassian, which would have been a perfectly legal a decade ago, now results in a three game suspension. Given Ference’s history, this could have reasonably been longer, but the fact that Kassian stayed in the game and that this wasn’t a blind side hit both worked in favour of the Oilers’ captain.

Kassian certainly has no cause for complaint as to the outcome, given that he only got three games for putting Brenden Dillon headfirst into the boards, a brutal shot which came in the same season in which he was earlier suspended for breaking Sam Gagner’s jaw with his stick.

With Nikita Nikitin on injured reserve and Brad Hunt clearing waivers on Monday, the Oilers have recalled Keith Aulie from Oklahoma City; he’ll join Oscar Klefbom who was previously brought up from the minors. The recall may or may not be necessary; the Oilers’ Tom Gazzola notes that Nikitin was practicing on the power play Monday, and we’ve already seen his ability to come back quickly from injury.

The pairings are anyone’s guess, given the status of Nikitin; the personnel at the Oilers’ disposal are as follows:

Assuming Nikitin can’t play, my guess would be that the shutdown duo of Marincin and Fayne stay together, that Klefbom joins Schultz (who he played with in 2013-14 and in training camp) and that Aulie gets Petry as a partner – that last unit is a primarily defensive pairing and Petry can be counted on to do most of the puck-moving.

If Nikitin can go, on the other hand:

The exact pairings are less important than the opportunity this represents for both Klefbom and Aulie. By all accounts, Klefbom has been excellent early down on the farm and a strong showing here could mean that the Oilers clear room for him to stay. Hunt’s demotion means that there is also officially a press box job open, and though Aulie lost that job in training camp he now has an opportunity to reclaim it.