Minnesota Wild's centre Pierre-Marc Bouchard faces two-game suspension after high-sticking –NHL
Minnesota Wild might have won Saturday night’s matchup against Columbus, but Pierre-Marc Bouchard, the teams’ centre player, will not be joining the team for their upcoming matchups against New York Islanders and Ottawa Senators after facing a two-game suspension
for high-sticking Blue Jackets forward, Matt Calvert.
The National Hockey League’s (NHL) senior vice president for player safety and hockey operations, Brendan Shanahan, made the announcement the following day on Sunday, letting the team know of his two-game suspension along with him forfeiting $44,108.10 in
salary for those days.
After the suspension, Bouchard’s agent, Allan Walsh, issued the following statement.
"Pierre-Marc Bouchard is one of the most sportsmanlike and gentlemanly players in the game today," In a career spanning 9 NHL seasons, he's acquired a grand total of 2 major penalties... The notion that Pierre-Marc Bouchard intentionally swung his stick
into the face of an opponent is patently absurd. He's just not that kind of player".
Bouchard, a 27-year-old forward from Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, was drafted by Minnesota as the eight overall pick during round-one of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft.
Since then, Bouchard has played all his games with Minnesota Wild over a span of 9 major league seasons in which he has registered a total of 156 minutes in penalty time.
“It was just a bad accident,” Bouchard told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “It was just a battle there on the faceoff. He comes after me before the puck drops, and we go at it. I was going to whack him on the hands, but he lifted my stick and it hits him
in the mouth”.
Before handing down the suspension, it was learnt that the NHL’s disciplinarian, Brendan Shanahan, communicated with Bouchard over the phone and discussed what possibly would be going on.
Since the player was a first time offender and generally is not involved in such situations, the incident was taken lightly and could have resulted in a much heavier suspension had he been a repeat offender.
Columbus’ Calvert was injured after being struck in the face by Bouchard’s stick and left the game after sustaining a cut on his face.
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