Early on Friday afternoon, the NHL announced that they had suspended Detroit Red Wings defenseman Brendan Smith for eight games after delivering an illegal hit to the head on Chicago Blackhawks forward Ben Smith.
The reasoning for Smith's suspension was that while Ben Smith did change position just before the hit took place, it wasn't enough to excuse making Brendan's shoulder making contact with Ben's head.
Smith's suspension of eight games will consist of the final three preseason games, and an additional five regular season games.
Starting with the good, since taking over player safety and discipline, Brendan Shanahan has done a great job of explaining his reasoning for suspensions through video on NHL.com.
Most of the time when Colin Campbell would or wouldn't enforce a suspension, fans were left wondering what his reasoning was for his decision, and never got a clear explanation.
Moving on to the bad, while there's no doubt there should have been a suspension, I think the NHL may have been a little harsh on Smith.
For starters, Shanahan notes in his explanation, and you can clearly see in the replays, that Smith ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Jordan Matthews
Detroit Red Wings: Smith Banned 8 Games, Did They Make the Right Call?
September 30th, 2011 by Jordan Matthews Leave a reply »
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