NHL Suspends Penguins' Ponikarovsky for Two Games

[Thrillhouse]

TORONTO - Pittsburgh Penguins forward Alexei Ponikarovsky has been suspended for two games, without pay, for a boarding penalty on New York Islanders forward Josh Bailey during NHL game #1200 against the New York Islanders last night, the National Hockey League announced.

Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and based on his average annual salary, Ponikarovsky will forfeit $21,813.48. The money goes to the Players' Emergency Assistance Fund.

Ponikarovsky was assessed a major penalty for boarding and game misconduct at 3:01 of the third period. Bailey was injured on the play.

Ponikarovsky will miss the Penguins' final two regular season games - Saturday at Atlanta and Sunday at the New York Islanders.

[FightingIsGood]

Dirty hit. Suspension warranted.

[bengino]

for those like me unaware of the hit

YouTube- Alexei Ponikarovsky Boarding Hit on Josh...

i'm surprised he got suspended to be honest, the league's inconsistency continues to baffle me.

[thepolishkid88]

I think he would have gotten 3 if he we had another game left. Sutton delivered basically the same hit to Dupuis and got 3 so that seems about right to me. We need to teach some of these guys how to hit, Bob Errey just screams when he sees these hits. His advice is good though, just take the body and you will be fine, shield yourself and you will not survive for long.

[Isles4life]

Dirty hit from behind there, and of course no one on the ice for the Islanders does a thing. Watching Jon Sim out there makes me want to throw up, and Okposo needs to do a hell of a lot better than that bullsh*t he pulled as a response since he's supposed to be the future captain of this team. Disgusting.

As for the hit itself, definitely a suspendable offense in my mind, that was just a blatant hit from behind that could have been avoided. But you never know what Colin Campbell is going to decide to do. He's suspended similar hits for longer, and let other similar plays go without even a fine. It really is seemingly completely random with that clown making the decisions.

[neiljc]

So now what warrants a suspension is completely unclear, as if it wasn't unclear before. I'm glad that referees are finally willing to call majors, as I believe that to this point many situations warranting a major didn't get one. But here, sure, the hit was unnecessary and was from behind, but I believe Bailey turns a little late. Maybe not too late, but late nevertheless. Not defending the hit, but I thought that the 5 was enough, especially for a clean, honest player. Not that the Pens will miss him anyway...

[IhateLindros]

If Sutton's hit was dirty and warranted a suspension, this is the same exact thing and there should be no question about it. The argument starts and ends right there. There should be no argument, or on the fence argument. It was a dirty hit, one the NHL is trying to eliminate and thus warranted a suspension. I don't care what teams were playing, there is no argument.

Now that I got that out of the way, thank you New York Islanders for watching one of your future "stars" get killed out there and you did nothing about it. Bailey is out 4-6 weeks with fractures in his orbital and cheekbone, and you guys did Jack Schitt. Thanks assholes!

[Killah_punk]

Campbell gave the magic 8 ball a shake and it ended up with 2 games, it looks like the magic 8 ball worked well in this particular case.

[KOd]

But not even a fine for Rob Blake for boarding Peter Mueller, who didn't even have the puck.

[Dick Cheney]

I don't think the hit was intended to go over like that, however it did warrant a suspension.

[scrapper62]

The Islanders are not a team.

[JKidd]

That's a joke. Pony had plenty of time to let up, and didn't bother. Finally the NHL gets a suspension right.

Off the suspension topic.. what in ****s name is that kind of response? 3 guys look at him? Sim and Oko just stand there as Pony stays down over Bailey? What a disgrace that is.

[Killah_punk]

With Poni suspended this gives Godard hope he may get to dress in one of the Pens final games.

[BullyFan]

No doubt he should have been suspended.

That's a pretty disgusting reaction by the Islanders, standing there looking around at each other. It's Ponikarovsky for fuk sakes.

[antonio106]

Wow, he missed two meaningless games. My goodness. You want him to learn a lesson, throw in a playoff game, too.