The National Hockey League has decided to suspend Gabriel Landeskog for his hit on Brad Marchand during Wednesday’s Boston Bruins/Colorado Avalanche game.
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Landeskog will be out for two games due to an ‘illegal hit to the head’. Due to the terms of the NHL/NHLPA’s most recent Collective Bargaining Agreement, Landeskog will cough up two games worth of pay, a total of $59,907.84. (Aren’t a lot of us in the wrong line of work?) That cash will end up going to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
Here’s how the NHL’s Department of Player Safety saw the hit.
Colorado's Gabriel Landeskog has been suspended 2 games for an illegal check to the head of Boston's Brad Marchand. https://t.co/e0PHYMclPM
— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) November 13, 2015
There are several reasons why Landeskog only received a two game suspension. He’s never really been in trouble with the league before. He has only been fined once in his five game career. Brad Marchand wasn’t seriously injured on the play, and he was able to finish the game.
The league knew it wasn’t an intentional hit, and agreed with both players opinion on how the hit happened. Landeskog is in no way a dirty player. A taller player attempted shoulder to shoulder contact on a shorted player and inadvertently struck him in the head.
Here’s how NHL fans saw the hit. (Way to keep it classy fellow hockey fans.)
Brad Marchand did not escape the event unscathed. He did chose to fire a punch at the jaw of Landeskog after getting up after the hit. The Department of Player Safety chose to fine Brad Marchand $5,000.oo for that shot to Landeskog’s face. That’s the most he can be fined under the current CBA.
Marchand got that fine due to his history with the Department of Player Safety. Marchand has been fined and suspended multiple times during his career. Marchand’s blood was up after taking a blind-sided hit to the back of the head, and he retaliated after the play. It cost the Bruins two minutes of a power play, and Marchand several thousand dollars.
The Bruins are back on the ice tomorrow night as they take on the Detroit Red Wings.