It's official: The NHL announced that Boston Bruins forward Shawn Thornton will be suspended 15 games for his brutal attack on the Pittsburgh Penguins' Brooks Orpik in a Dec. 7 matchup between the two teams. It was the second suspension handed out due to actions committed in this game, after James Neal received a five-game ban for delivering a knee to the prone Brad Marchand's head.
The good news: The NHL got Thornton's suspension right. By receiving 15 games, they made a proper example of Boston's enforcer by showing just how harshly the Department of Player Safety will come down on malicious on-ice attacks.
The bad news: Looking at the results, the two suspensions were judged so differently that issues of inconsistency once again plague the league.
Of course, Thornton's decision to grab Orpik from behind and throw him to the ice before punching him twice deserved a fair and lengthy review before announcing a ruling. It was certainly given that, judging by the lengthy gap between the incident and the ruling itself. Taking a week to consider all of the implications of Thornton's suspension and the precede ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Christopher Leone
NHL: Shawn Thornton, James Neal Suspensions Show Disciplinary Inconsistency
December 14th, 2013 by Christopher Leone Leave a reply »
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