Green calls Matheson's hit, throw down of Pettersson 'dirty play'

Travis Green wasn't pleased with what Mike Matheson did to Elias Pettersson on Saturday night.

"It's a dirty play," the Vancouver Canucks head coach told reporters postgame. "The league's trying to protect the good, young players, and that's just a dirty play."

The Florida Panthers defenseman hit Pettersson into the boards and slammed him to the ice early in the third period of a game the Canucks won 3-2.

Green didn't update Pettersson's condition, and he didn't want to address the possibility of payback.

"We won the game. I'm not going to comment on retribution or anything like that," he said.

Canucks forward Sven Baertschi weighed in on the hit too, saying it "looked like WWE to me," according to Sportsnet's Iain MacIntyre.

Pettersson played only two shifts in the third frame, and he didn't appear on the ice for the final 16 minutes.

Earlier in the game, he scored his fifth goal in five NHL games.