Hit on Marian Hossa: Phoenix Coyotes’ Raffi Torres to appeal length of 25-game ban-NHL News
The National Hockey League (NHL) Players Association (NHLPA) is expected to meet NHL commissioner, Gary Bettman, to discuss the length of the suspension the league has given to Phoenix Coyotes’ left wing, Raffi Torres.
The player has decided to appeal his 25-game suspension, received over his hit on Chicago Blackhawks’ forward, Marian Hossa, in Game 3 of the Western Conference playoff quarterfinals series.
Torress will appeal against the length of the suspension but not the penalty itself, and to this end he and the NHLPA representatives are expected to meet the commissioner in near future.
Appeals are normally heard by the commissioner, who holds the right to reduce the length of the ban.
However, it is not known yet if the prospective meeting between the commissioner and the affected parties is going to be a process of the potential appeal or the player will have to pursue the matter from beginning altogether at any other date.
The date of the meeting has not yet been decided.
Torres is going to serve the suspension in the ongoing playoff series and remaining part in the next NHL season if the team does not play more games before the start of the next season.
It is for the first that a player has been handed down such a lengthy ban by the league since 2007, and in spite of Hossa’s absence from a few games as a result of the hit, Torres finds the punishment to be too severe.
Following the announcement of his punishment, the player has shown some remorse over the hit and wished for Hossa's early recovery.
Apparently, his regrets are not going to serve any good to him as the league has already sounded him a strong warning, and of course, the suspension itself speaks for the volume of seriousness the office has shown.
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