No Suspension for Boston Bruins' Milan Lucic, Brendan Shanahan slams Buffalo Sabres for criticism
Buffalo lost their veteran goalie, Ryan Miller, after Boston Bruins’ enforcer, Milan Lucic, ran into him during their matchup on Saturday, which the Sabres eventually lost, 6-2. National Hockey League (NHL) senior vice president for player safety and hockey
operations, Brendan Shanahan, decided not to suspend the player for the incident, terming it unintentional.
Before making any final decision on suspending the player or not, Shanahan held a conference call with the player, in which he gave Lucic a chance to defend himself. After the conversation and asking a few question, Shanahan decided that a suspension would
not suffice.
"I had the hearing because I did make an initial assessment of the play as I do with all plays, but I did have some questions for Milan and I wanted to hear directly from him", Shanahan told NHL.com. "They were regarding his intent; at what point did he
know there was going to be a collision; and whether or not he felt he had the time to avoid the collision. I was satisfied with his answers".
In addition to the announcement, the NHL’s disciplinarian also slammed the Buffalo Sabres for their uncalled for criticism of his decision, terming it nothing they should be concerned about since it is the sole decision making power of the league to decide
whether the player should be penalised or not.
Buffalo expressed the hit on their goalie as one which shows that all goalkeepers are vulnerable to such attacks by big players, jeopardizing not only their careers but their overall health as well.
"It's completely irresponsible for people in Buffalo and management to suggest that it's open season on goalies”, Shanahan said. "I can assure and warn the players that it's not”.
At the moment, there is set date for the 31-year-old goalkeeper to make a comeback after facing a concussion and neck pain, but not having him on the team is something Buffalo is angry at because it was an incident which could have been avoided if Lucic
had taken into consideration his actions before attempting to do something.
For now, the only thing which is certain is that Lucic is not going to be suspended and Miller will not be playing for at least a week.
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