One week after his assault on Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik, Bruins forward Shawn Thornton was hit with a 15-game suspension by the NHL on Saturday. It's the longest regular-season banishment handed down by the league since Chris Simon of the New York Islanders received 30 games in December 2007 for stomping on the leg of Penguins forward Jarkko Ruutu with his skate.
It's also the lengthiest regular-season suspension handed by Brendan Shanahan since he took over supplemental discipline before the 2011-12 season.
Yet Thornton still got off easy. He should be sitting for the rest of the season.
The light sentence probably has everything to do with Thornton having a clean record during his 11 seasons in the NHL. That likely means nothing to Orpik, who will be out indefinitely due to a brain injury suffered during what would be considered a criminal attack in any other walk of life.
If you think the terms "assault" and "criminal attack" are whiny words used by a writer who has never played in the NHL, what if similar descriptors were used by an NHL player? Brad Richards of the New Yo ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Dave Lozo
NHL Falls Far Short of Justice with Shawn Thornton’s 15-Game Suspension
December 14th, 2013 by Dave Lozo Leave a reply »
Advertisement