Duncan Keith suspended for rest of season, Game 1 of playoffs (Video)
The NHL suspended Duncan Keith of the Chicago Blackhawks for the rest of the regular season (five games) and the first game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for his reckless, vengeful whack with his stick to Charlie Coyle’s mouth on Tuesday night.
Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith has been suspended for six games, without pay, for high-sticking Minnesota Wild forward Charlie Coyle during NHL Game No. 1146 in St. Paul on Tuesday, March 29, the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety announced today.
The suspension includes the Blackhawks’ final five regular-season games and first Stanley Cup Playoff game. The incident occurred at 9:27 of the first period. Keith was assessed a match penalty for high-sticking.
Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and, based on his average annual salary, Keith will forfeit $148,883.35. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
Keith was suspended twice before, including for a playoff game: He got one postseason game for high-sticking Jeff Carter of the Los Angeles Kings on June 4, 2013; and he was given five games on March 21, 2012, for an elbow to Daniel Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks.
That Sedin play was retribution for his targeting Keith earlier in the game. But like on that play, the Department of Player Safety didn’t really care what lit the fuse for the Keith high-stick on Coyle. While some Keith sympathizers were creating Zapruder film indictments of Coyle’s action before Keith hit the ice – and the NHL pretty clearly explains how Coyle’s stick accidently was wedged in his teammate’s skate for that “slew stick” on Keith – none of it justified an intentional tennis forehand of his stick into the Minnesota Wild forward’s face.
Meanwhile, that Carter play was, as the video shows, the same kind of reckless whack to the face. Talk about incriminating evidence … Johnnie Cochran couldn’t disconnect those dots.
A few more reactions:
1. Suspending Keith for a playoff game was, frankly, further than we thought the NHL would go. “Suspended for the rest of the regular season” is a nice bold statement, but they went beyond it. Postseason suspensions are sometimes difficult to squeeze out of DoPS – we had one last season, after having several in previous seasons – so kudos for taking that step.
2. And, let’s face it: They’re taking that step against one of their glamour franchises, the good soldiers that play in every outdoor game and bring lots of ratings to the postseason. While the Blackhawks agreed that Keith was at fault for this potential suspension, we imagine losing him for one of seven games in a playoff series was protested behind closed doors.
3. Giving Keith six games means the suspension is open for him and the NHLPA to appeal it. But given the pace established by the Dennis Wideman arbitration, his suspension would be finally ruled on somewhere around the fifth round of the NHL Draft, we imagine.
Cynically, it’s giving a player five games of rest for a team that’s not really in danger to move up or down the standings, and then only the first playoff game of a series. But the NHL including that playoff game is a solid statement and the right punishment.
But what do you think?
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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
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