Andy Sutton Suspended Five Games

[Thrillhouse]

NEW YORK -- Edmonton Oilers defenseman Andy Sutton has been suspended, without pay, for five games for delivering an illegal hit to the head of Colorado Avalanche forward Gabriel Landeskog during NHL Game No. 138 Friday night in Denver, the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety announced today.

Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and based on his average annual salary, Sutton will forfeit $57,432.45. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

The incident occurred at 3:23 of the third period. Sutton was assessed a minor penalty for elbowing.

Sutton missed Sunday’s game vs. St. Louis and will miss games Nov. 3 at Los Angeles, Nov. 5 at Phoenix, Nov. 8 at Montreal and Nov. 10 at Boston. He will be eligible to return Nov. 11 at Detroit.

[straka91]

If he wasnt a repeat offender it would of been a fine or 2 gamer, the head contact looked acidental so Im very meh about this decsion from Shannypanzy.

[shaud19]

Can't blame Sutton here, just missed a great hit, 5 games is silly.

[OilersHockey]

Originally Posted by shaud19

Can't blame Sutton here, just missed a great hit, 5 games is silly.

The guy is six inches shorter than him and leaning forward - he steps up as GL gets a suicide pass from his idiot D man... he goes to make contact, GL tries to avoid last second, and his options are either made some contact or let him by...

His shoulder is tucked into his side and he never leaves his feet.

That my friends is a hockey play.

5 games.

[Hagstrom]

Used to be a hockey play, it isn't anymore.

[JKidd]

This is just retarded.

All there is to it. I don't care that Sutton is a "repeat offender" in the least bit. IMO, there is nothing wrong this this hit. It's not a blind side, scrape by and connect with the jaw, the rookie makes a sudden movement and Sutton catches him with the bicep/shoulder to the jaw and chest.

And I wonder why my interest in hockey is at an all time low... well, really I don't.

[Isles4life]

Big time suspension, so I guess they banished Rob Blake back to the mail room of the league offices and let Shanahan come out and speak for himself.

5 games is just too much for this play in my opinion, even with Sutton having a disciplinary record. The first time I saw it, I immediately noticed the size differential involved and Landeskog's positioning, and thought it would be impossible for Sutton to take the body at all without making contact with Landeskog's head. However, the more I watched it, and while his head was down, I don't think Landeskog was as bent over as I initially thought, and I also think Sutton could have taken a slightly different path and still thrown a hit that would have made less direct contact with the head.

So given the league crackdown on headshots (which I frequently disagree with on a play-to-play basis), I understand the league's decision to discipline Sutton. But I would have thought 2 games, even with his record. This really was not that malicious appearing of a hit in my mind, and Shanahan seemed to have completely ignored the difficult reality of the difference in player sizes contributing to the area of impact.

They came down too hard on Sutton on here, and they let Carcillo off easy for his hit the same night (and I rarely if ever call for longer suspensions).

[Gunslinger]

Par for the course with Shanny in charge. Its early yet but already I have to say this most recent suspension does'nt surprise me.

[Sukoshi84]

Originally Posted by OilersHockey

The guy is six inches shorter than him and leaning forward - he steps up as GL gets a suicide pass from his idiot D man... he goes to make contact, GL tries to avoid last second, and his options are either made some contact or let him by...

His shoulder is tucked into his side and he never leaves his feet.

That my friends is a hockey play.

5 games.

Typical ShannaBitch Bullshit!!

[crunchman927]

so your size is gonna be a suspension......Chara's screwed lol, i'd love to get Shanny's perspective on Chara's decimation of Pacorietty(sp?) last season

[FightingIsGood]

The head was the principle point of contact, even though he obviously wasn't targeting it. Plus, Landeskog made a classic rookie mistake by not keeping his head on a swivel and understanding who is on the ice, and got rocked for his trouble. All of that says 1 game minimum given the headshot crackdown, but his record gets him 5. Not surprised one bit by this decision. If it were me, it would be no suspension and Landeskog hopefully learning a valuable lesson, but that is no longer acceptable in today's NHL.

[BROKEN*ORBITAL]

Oh the hilarity.

Sutton gets suspended 5 games for an "illegal hit to the head" that barely grazed Landeskog and didn't phase him in the slightest.

Now imagine what would have happened to Landeskog had Sutton landed that hit clean (and as the NHL wants it) square in the chest. That "clean hit" would have sent Landeskog to the emergency room or morgue, and Sutton would have gotten nothing.

Player safety my ass. Just go ahead and ban hitting altogether you pathetic meat sacs. It'll save them the embarrassment of picking and choosing what they feel is legal or not from a day to day basis.

[canuckfan]

Originally Posted by Isles4life

They came down too hard on Sutton on here, and they let Carcillo off easy for his hit the same night (and I rarely if ever call for longer suspensions).

Good post Isles - I feel the same way, especially with the last part of your post. Its almost as if these suspensions should have been reversed - 5 for Carcillo for a much more dangerous hit -imo - and 2 for Sutton. Even with the league's wide crackdown on headshots I'm still a little surprised at the severity of the suspension.

To me, this is just a tough, and unlucky hit - the timing and the angle of the hit seemed just a shade off - an inch one way/step faster could have made for a beauty highlite hit and caught Landeskog square in the chest - while an inch the other way could have really given the kid a severe concussion - and I think that way of thinking, plus the fact the head was indeed the first point of impact ensured Sutton was going to slapped with a suspension,. But even I believe this is a tad too harsh.

[Kid Roberts]

I hate Sutton, but that ruling is bull sh*t.

[omorales]

He is inconsistent, and seems to live in his own fantasy land. He makes me miss Campbell. He is a full blown idiot. This was a poor call. Had Sutton targeted him, they'd still be picking brain fragments from the ice.