Saturday, April 21, 2012

Dubious Company

What do Dale Hunter, Marty McSorley, Todd Bertuzzi, Chris Simon, and Raffi Torres all have in common?  As of today, all will have missed 20-plus games due to suspension, and for Torres, this means he's not seeing anymore playoff action this year.  You know the story if you read the previous post (or have been following any other news site, as it is a big deal), so the story won't be rehashed.  What will be said is that Torres is going to sit out 25 games, which began with game 4 against Chicago.  Should Phoenix finish their playoffs before hitting 25 games, which would have to go to game 7 every time, Torres could be back the following season.  Seeing as that isn't likely, he will have to sit out a few regular season games and won't be allowed to participate in any pre-season games.

Torres' hit on Marian Hossa wasn't the cheap shot Dale Hunter's hit on Pierre Turgeon was in the 1993 playoffs, and there likely won't be any criminal charges filed (see: McSorley's stick swinging incident on Donald Brashear in 2000 and Bertuzzi's head ramming of Steve Moore in 2004), but Torres clearly was targeting the head with the hit, and given the NHL's efforts to crack down on this kind of thing and the awareness of concussions in sports, 25 games sounds about right for Torres, and that's even before figuring his repeat offender status.

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