NHL Shelves Pens Kris Letang
By Matt Shetler
Add defenseman Kris Letang to a list that includes Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Dustin Jeffrey,and Brooks Orpik and you have one dominant unit. Those five on the ice together would likely be better than any five skaters that any other team could throw out against the Penguins on any given night.
Unfortunately for the Pens, they are all in street clothes for the time being.
Letang joins the other four who will be watching the Pens take on the Minnesota Wild tonight after news that he was suspended by the NHL for two games after his hit on Winnipeg forward Alex Burmistrov on Monday night.
NHL senior vice president of player safety Brendan Shanahan said the NHL took into account Letang’s previous fine for a similar hit in April in determining the suspension.
The call in question was a boarding call, but a pretty soft one in which Burmistrov pretty much slowed down and turned into the hit, and to Letang’s defense he really had nowhere else to go on the play.
While the suspension may seem excessive to Pens fans, I really have no problem with it. The game needs cleaned up and if this is a step in the right direction, then good for Shanahan. But that’s a big if though. If Shanahan shows consistency in suspending players for similar actions then I’m all for it.
I guess time will tell though. If the next offender of a similar play isn’t disciplined in a similar fashion well then I guess it’s the same NHL.
I’ve heard fans complain on talk radio about the elbow to the head that Matt Cooke took and no suspension was handed down. Cooke didn’t get elbowed, it was a shoulder to the head, but the NHL has stated time and time again they were going to discipline head shots.
While I don’t think a suspension was warranted on the Cooke hit, you can’t have a gray area on what hits to the head are acceptable and what hits aren’t. So seven games into the season, the NHL still finds itself in a bad spot.
So do the Penguins, who will be without Letang for the next two games. If you’re a Pens fan, the press box is getting a little too crowded with players currently in street clothes.
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