Tampa Bay Lightning's Dominic Moore avoids suspension, handed down $2,500 fine -NHL Update
Tampa Bay’s Dominic Moore was lucky to avoid a suspension for his hit, which seemed to have targeted the head, on New York Rangers’ Ruslan Fedotenko during their Thursday night matchup, but was handed down a $2,500 fine for the incident.
The National Hockey League’s (NHL) chief disciplinarian, Brendan Shanahan, announced the news through a video and also termed the cause for the fine "for an interference infraction that caused an injury."
In the replay, it could be easily seen that Moore came in front of the Rangers’ player and hit him from the front as he had the puck in his control, forcing him to be ejected from the game and not returning that night.
In addition, Fedotenko was not able to see Moore coming from his left side, resulting in the player’s shoulder hitting his sticking which struck the New York player in the face as he fell down on the ice. A serious injury was fortunately ruled out.
Fedotenko did not participate in the Rangers next game on Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Asking Tampa Bay Lightning head coach, Guy Boucher, on what he thought of the incident, he stated that it was rather a warning since the player did not physically strike the player but resulted in the stick doing so.
"I think it was the right thing to do," Boucher said. "Sometimes you can avoid those contacts. … They just want to warn the player, I think."
One thing was obvious, which was that Moore was not aiming at the head but rather for a shoulder check that just ended up wrong.
"I looked at the clip and it's not something you want to see," Boucher added. "But it wasn't something premeditated. He wasn't aiming for a head shot."
Moore did not respond to a request about what he thought on the incident, but is considered to be very lucky to have avoided the suspension as the NHL has shown strict action this 2011-2012 regular season in order to cut down on the concussion epidemic.
Some might think that the NHL let Dominic Moore off the hook easily, but for him, it certainly is something he will think about before attempting such a thing in the future.
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