Connecticut Whale right wing Mats Zuccarello has been suspended for one game as a result of his actions in the game against Worcester. They must have considered his hit on Jonathan Cheechoo to be over the line and a suspend-able offense. At the time, the referee’s tagged Zuccarello with a boarding call, but not a misconduct of any kind.
Having seen the play at the time it appeared that the two did in fact make contact but that Cheechoo, a one time 50+ goal scorer in the NHL, lost his edge and went hard into the boards.
Bill Ballou reported at telegram.com that Cheechoo has a bruised kidney and will be lost to the team for a while. It’s very likely that the reason for the suspension at all is because of the nature of the injury more than the play on the ice. It really didn’t look like much at the time but Cheechoo did stay down a while.
Here’s the official release:
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … The American Hockey League today announced that Connecticut Whale right wing Mats Zuccarello has been suspended for one (1) game as a result of his actions in a game vs. Worcester on Dec. 17.
Zuccarello was suspended under the provisions of AHL Rule 28.1 (supplementary discipline).
Zuccarello will miss Connecticut’s game Tuesday (Dec. 21) at Manchester.
I saw the hit and it didn’t look bad, just a bad way to hit the boards, but the player that pile drove Brody Dupont gets nothing, not even an extra penelty. That’s not right