Senators' Hodgson Ejected for Boarding Clarke in Kings' Overtime Win

Hayden Hodgson went looking for a hit to wake up his team, and instead he put himself out of the game and a Kings defenceman out with it. The Ottawa Senators forward was ejected on Thursday night in Los Angeles for boarding Brandt Clarke, who left with an upper-body injury, and the Kings still needed overtime to beat Ottawa 6-5 after blowing a four-goal lead.

What exactly happened on the hit?

Hodgson took a run at Clarke at 11:15 of the second period, with 8:45 left in the period. AP reports the broadcast clocked him at 21 mph as he charged in, and Clarke was just below the goal line when he was driven into the boards. The officials called a five-minute major for boarding plus a game misconduct, ending Hodgson’s night on the spot.

The aftermath was immediate and messy. A brief scrum followed, and Kings forward Erik Haula got two minutes for roughing Hodgson, Daily Faceoff reports. Los Angeles still came out of the sequence with a power play, and Artemi Panarin scored his eighth goal of the season on it to stretch the lead to 5-1 after two periods. Gino Hard notes that NHL.com’s recap described the play as an elbow to the head, a description that goes beyond the boarding call the officials made, and one the league’s reviewers will have to weigh if they look at the hit.

How badly was Clarke hurt?

Badly enough to end his night, and no further than that is known yet. Clarke was slow to get to his feet after the hit, Daily Faceoff reports, and the Kings announced during the game that he would not return because of an upper-body injury. No update on how long he could be out had been given in the first reporting, which is the part of this story that matters most and is still blank.

The timing made it worse for Ottawa. The hit came shortly after Los Angeles had scored three goals in 4:03 to take a 4-1 lead and chase Senators goalie Jonas Johansson, AP reports. A team already chasing the game then lost a forward to ejection and watched the deficit grow to 5-1, with Panarin’s power-play goal coming directly from Hodgson’s major.

Why does Hodgson’s record matter here?

Because this was not a first offence in the wider sense, even if it was a rare NHL appearance. Hodgson is a 30-year-old undrafted winger who has spent most of his professional career in the AHL and ECHL, Daily Faceoff reports. Thursday was his 24th NHL game and his 17th with Ottawa, and he now has 51 penalty minutes in the NHL with no points in his last 18 games at that level.

His minor-league record is the context the league will see. Daily Faceoff reports he has served mainly as an enforcer, with 134 penalty minutes and 11 points in 47 games for Belleville in the 2025-26 AHL season, and that he has been suspended multiple times for illegal hits and other aggressive on-ice behaviour. Gino Hard adds that he dropped the gloves in Ottawa’s fight-filled game against Florida on October 21. A player brought in to add physical edge is judged differently when the edge crosses the line, and Hodgson’s history gives the reviewers a pattern to read, not just a single play.

How did the Kings nearly throw it away?

By standing still for a period. Ottawa scored four times in the third, Gino Hard reports, with Dylan Cozens netting twice and Shane Pinto tying the game with 1:40 left on a six-on-five. Quinton Byfield finally ended it at 3:37 of overtime, 6-5, for Los Angeles’ first home win of the season.

The comeback also underlines what the major cost Ottawa in the other direction. The Senators played the rest of the night down a forward, and they had already lost Andre Burakovsky to an upper-body injury in the first period, Gino Hard reports. They are now 0-2 on a five-game road trip that continues in San Jose, and they nearly stole two points in Los Angeles with a short bench and a goalie who had already been chased once.

What does Player Safety do next?

That is the open question, and the recent history of these cases shows how wide the range is. A match penalty for a head hit earned Frank Nazar a two-game suspension earlier this month, while a stick jab at a stoppage earned Evan Rodrigues only the maximum $5,000 fine. Hodgson’s play sits between those poles: a boarding major at speed, with an injured player, from a player with a suspension history in the minors.

The other recent Ottawa case shows how fast the picture can change. Anthony Mantha’s boarding major knocked Niklas Matinpalo out of a game and deepened a blue-line crisis, and an uncalled cross-check by Leon Draisaitl on Auston Matthews showed the opposite outcome, where the officials let a play go entirely. Hodgson’s case already has the officials’ call on the record, which gives Player Safety a clearer starting point than either of those. What it does with that start, and what the Kings say about Clarke, will decide whether this is a one-night story or a suspension story.