Brendan Smith Receives Five-Game Suspension

[Thrillhouse]

NEW YORK – Detroit Red Wings defenseman Brendan Smith has been suspended for the remainder of the preseason and five regular-season games, without pay, for an illegal hit to the head of Chicago forward Ben Smith during a preseason game on September 28, NHL Senior Vice President of Player Safety Brendan Shanahan announced today.

Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and based on his average annual salary, Brendan Smith will forfeit $23,648.65. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

At 5:26 of the third period, Brendan Smith hit Ben Smith in the head, injuring the Chicago player in the process. Brendan Smith was assessed a match penalty.

Brendan Smith will miss preseason games tonight vs. Toronto, tomorrow night at Toronto and Sunday vs. Pittsburgh. He also will miss five NHL regular-season games.

[gdameo]

I understand that NHL is trying to make it safer but 8 games, 5 regular games??? A rookie....with no history? c'mon seriously....ben had his head down...it was his fault...what is brendan supposed to do? let him score?

[thruby]

so, i have a question regarding this, maybe someone can help me out.

is this kid even going to be a Red Wing this year? does he just go back down to the AHL and serve his time there?

maybe that's a dumb question, but i have the day off and i just woke up, so back off.

p.s. i don't care if he got suspended 1 game or 40, a hawk should have shown him a knuckle or two for ****s sake and that could have been that.

[McDonald19]

Originally Posted by thruby

is this kid even going to be a Red Wing this year? does he just go back down to the AHL and serve his time there?

They will have to call him up to the NHL at some point to serve the suspension. Sitting out 5 AHL games won't count. Ducks have to do the same thing with Jacques.

[Machinehead2k5]

Originally Posted by gdameo

I understand that NHL is trying to make it safer but 8 games, 5 regular games??? A rookie....with no history? c'mon seriously....ben had his head down...it was his fault...what is brendan supposed to do? let him score?

The art of the hip check will soon makes its way back into the NHL again.

[gongermuskegon]

Thought the hit warranted a game mis but not a five game suspension dr. salad aka shany aka the warden really needs to tone it down. Hockey is still hockey.

[FightingIsGood]

Originally Posted by Machinehead2k5

The art of the hip check will soon makes its way back into the NHL again.

I said this a while back. Thing is, does anyone besides Dan Hamhuis know how to throw a hip check anymore?

Anyway, I said he'd get 3-5 games, and I was right. Still don't think it deserved more than a major penalty since Ben Smith had his head down.

[canuckfan]

Hahaha, this is hilarious - stupid kid hasn't played 1 NHL game yet and already he's been suspended 5! To be dumb enough to have a record like that before even playing your first game is just too funny. Only to a dumb kunt of a hockey player!

I bet 4 games, but 5 is equally deserving. It was a dumb hit on a piss-poor play. People are going to pin some blame on the victim here, which may be a tad deserved - but still, the way Smith drove upwards with his shoulder indicated he was specifically targeting the head, and that can't be allowed anymore. My only regret is that it wasn't Bolland who got caught like that!

Still - I bitched about this in the other thread about the Smiths - I don't think these kids are taught how to hit properly anymore. The object is to drive your shoulder through the guys chest, seperate body from puck - not through the guys skull and trying your fuking hardest to seperate head from neck. Just plain dumb.

5 games for being stupid kiddo. Hope you learned a lesson, a financially painful one at that.

[blackngold]

Originally Posted by FightingIsGood

I said this a while back. Thing is, does anyone besides Dan Hamhuis know how to throw a hip check anymore?

Johnny Boychuk is a master of hip checks.

[solid]

Lay the hit you get suspended...lay off the hit and you get sent down...damned if you do damned if you don't

[lakingsfan19]

Originally Posted by FightingIsGood

I said this a while back. Thing is, does anyone besides Dan Hamhuis know how to throw a hip check anymore?

That is one thing Doughty has been working on and starting to show in his game.

Drew Doughty hipchecks Jack Skille - YouTube

Drew Doughty Huge Hipcheck On Taylor Hall -...

Drew Doughty Big Hip Check on Burrows 10/29/2009 ...

Drew Doughty hip checks Sam Gagner - YouTube

But as you can see by this clip, he still needs to work on it a bit.

Logan Couture scores his first Goal in the 2011...

[gwilliford]

There is no responsibility on the puck carrier at all? IF he hadnt tried to toe drag and take the shoulder he would have been hit clean, IMO. But no he puts his head down and pulls puck back and gets clipped at the end of the established Redwings players body check/body position, thats why he got hitup high and thats why he was seeing stars! I feel this was the worst suspension soo far this preseason! If you cut across the middle with a toedrag and your head down you should expect to get leveled! Smith for Redwings was finishing his anticipated check when he got beat and the other guy got clipped!

[I_am_Belak_2]

Is this the first time a player has been given an NHL suspension before playing one career NHL regular season game?

[blackngold]

Originally Posted by I_am_Belak_2

Is this the first time a player has been given an NHL suspension before playing one career NHL regular season game?

Steve Downie got the book thrown at him during the 07-08 preseason after he took off Dean McAmmond's head. He made his NHL debut later that season.

[bruiser11]

Shanahan needs to chill.