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The Los Angeles Kings will be without the services of winger Tanner Jeannot for the next three games after he delivered a vicious hit to the head of Vancouver Canucks forward Brock Boeser on Thursday night in Los Angeles.

The hit occurred in the first period as Boeser was skating through the neutral zone and delivered a pass to a teammate near center ice.

As Boeser watched his pass — I wouldn’t say he was necessarily admiring it though — Jeannot stepped into him with a brutal blindside hit, the principal point of contact of which sure seemed to be the Canucks forward’s head.

There are those hits where we can sit around and debate whether or not it may have been clean… this was not one of those hits.

The officials agreed and Jeannot was handed a match penalty, while Boeser headed to the locker room and did not return to the game.

When a player is assessed a match penalty the league automatically reviews the play in question — although, I think they would have taken a look at this one anyway — and after a hearing on Friday, the NHL Department of Player Safety announced that Jeannot has been dealt a three-game suspension.

The Department of Player Safety can sometimes make it seem like they decide suspensions by blindfolding themselves and throwing darts, but I think they got this one right. As Vancouver Canucks coach Rick Tocchet told the press after the game, according to Sportsnet, it was a “dangerous” play. He did not provide any update on when Boeser will be back in the lineup.

The Canucks ended up winning Thursday’s game 4-2, while the Kings will be without Jeannot for their next three contests, which are at home against the Columbus Blue Jackets and then on the road against the Calgary Flames and Colorado Avalanche.