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Well, pretty much as soon as the hit happened it seemed like this was inevitable, but now it’s official:

It’s not too hard to see why that’s a suspension, and any arguments against it being a suspension are just through looking at the countless similar hits that regularly slip through the cracks. Sometimes players get away with things they should, that doesn’t mean that this wasn’t a justifiable suspension on Kerfoot, it absolutely is.

See? Not ideal, and two games keeps Kerfoot out of Wednesday (@DET) & Friday’s (@BUF) games, returning on Saturday night when the Leafs return home to play against Buffalo.

As for how the Leafs backfill Kerfoot, well, they already have the bodies on the team to do so, and it likely means that Timashov or Shore play in on the 4th line with either Petan or Engvall moving up in the lineup, and at this point the case can be made that newly promoted Marlie Pierre Engvall is the right call.

As for Kerfoot, it’s not surprising that he’s a little remorseful about doing this to a former teammate, and if you had to bet on one of Barrie, Kerfoot, or Kadri to get suspended in the Avs/Leafs game, you probably had your money on Kadri.

Thankfully the Wednesday game against Detroit is forgiving of the depleted Leafs roster, but not having Kerfoot against Buffalo when they are trying to build a bit of a buffer in the standings might bite them on the ass, though I might be overstating the importance of Kerfoot, who has 8 points in his 22 games this season, and only 1 in his last nine games.