Shane Doan suspended three games
Phoenix Coyote forward Shane Doan has been suspended for three games after the National Hockey League ruled his hit on Anaheim Ducks forward Dan Sexton was illegal.
Doan threw a late hit on Sexton during the Coyotes’ 3-2 loss to the Ducks on Sunday 17 October. The hit was ruled to be blindside after the game, and Doan was not assessed a penalty on the play.
The decision to suspend Doan is part of the NHL’s attempt to get head-shots out of the game. The League currently has 12 players out this season with head injuries, several of which are due to dangerous hits.
The check Doan threw on Sexton meets all the textbook criteria the League uses when trying to determine if a hit is illegal or not. Doan caught Sexton in the middle of the ice, in the neutral zone after the centre had made a play to advance the puck into
the Coyotes end.
Conversely, it can be said that the only reason Doan hit Sexton in the head is because of the discrepancy in height between Doan, a power forward standing at 6’1” and Sexton, a speedster who measures 5’10”. Perhaps bothering the Coyotes more than the League’s
decision to suspend their captain for three games, is the fact that the hit looked very similar to a check thrown by Ottawa Senators forward Nick Foligno on the Carolina Hurricanes Patrick Dwyer just a couple of nights earlier. Foligno did not receive a penalty
on the play and was only given a marginal fine for the infraction.
Although the hit may have deserved a penalty the fact that the League remains very inconsistent with their level of punishment has rubbed several teams the wrong way. Especially after the League made it clear they would be cracking down on head-shots throughout
the off-season.
So far in four games this season, Doan has managed two assists and four penalty minutes.
Tags: