Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith will miss the remainder of the regular season and one playoff game thanks to an incident on Tuesday night in which he slashed Wild forward Charlie Coyle in the face.
In the first period of Tuesday’s game, Keith was dumped to the ice by a bodycheck from Wild forward Charlie Coyle. Keith then responded by swinging his stick directly into Coyle’s face, drawing blood and stopping play. The veteran defenseman was assessed a match penalty and, later, given a hearing from the league.
Keith received his six-game suspension from the NHL’s Department of Player Safety on Friday night, with the DoPS defining the play as a “retaliatory high stick.” The league also factored in Keith’s history of infractions, including a similar incident from the 2013 Western Conference Finals in which Keith intentionally swung his stick into the face of Kings forward Jeff Carter, requiring a 20-stitch repair job and some dental work for Carter.
There has been much debate this week on how big of a suspension Keith deserves for the infraction on Coyle, with some saying that the league should crack down on him as a repeat offender and give him a 10 or even 20 game ban. It’s worth noting that the 2013 incident only earned Keith a one-game suspension, so this one — five regular season games and one playoff contest — is significantly heavier.
There’s a chance the NHL may have cracked down on Keith with a larger suspension to make an example out of him if this incident happened earlier in the season. It’s easier to hand out a 10-plus game suspension in the middle of the regular season but — with Keith being a star player — it was always unlikely they were going to keep him out of several playoff games.
But, still, is it enough? That’s a question that the hockey world will be debating for the next few days.
(Via NHL)
