4-game suspension for Byfuglien cross-check

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This article was published 02/04/2015 (3835 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The NHL’s department of player safety has slapped Winnipeg Jets defenceman Dustin Byfuglien with a four-game suspension for a cross-check delivered in Tuesday’s home game against the New York Rangers.

The decision, rendered after today’s phone hearing, will leave Byfuglien ineligible to play until the Jets’ final game of the season, April 11 vs. Calgary.

It’s the third time this season a Jets’ player has been suspended. Adam Lowry (one game, November) and Evander Kane (two games, December) each received bans from the league for boarding.

Tuesday, Byfuglien slammed his stick into the neck of New York’s J.T. Miller, who was digging around the crease. No penalty was assessed, presumably because the play happened so quickly and wasn’t seen by the on-ice officials.

Here’s the analysis from the NHL’s Patrick Burke on the video that outlines the suspension, calling the cross-check, “dangerous”:

“Some measure of physicality in front of the net is common and acceptable, particularly when defenceman are attempting to protect their goaltenders,” Burke says. “In this case, however, Miller is defenceless and out of the play by the time Byfuglien initiates contact.

“Byfuglien not only delivers an illegal blow, he does so with excessive force to an unprotected and vulnerable part of Miller’s upper body.”

Suspension to cost Buff $112K

There was no injury on the play and Byfuglien, though he’s been fined three times over his career, is not considered a repeat offender.

No other mitigating circumstances are mentioned in the video or decision.

The ban will cost Byfuglien $111,827.96 in salary, money that will go to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

Earlier today, Jets captain Andrew Ladd mentioned the speed of the game when asked to comment about the foul.

“It doesn’t look good on video but it’s easy to slow it down after the fact,” Ladd said today. “Over the course of the game things happen quick. I know he didn’t mean to get him in the neck. He was probably trying to get him in the back and hit the wrong spot. Whatever comes of that

“It’s not in our hands anymore so we’ll deal with it as it happens.”

Plays hard, but not a fighter: coach

Jets coach Paul Maurice declined to comment on the matter this morning, saying he’d prefer to wait until the decision is made before he offered any remarks.

The coach did, however, go to bat for his big defenceman when asked if he thought Byfuglien had been playing over the line recently.

“The Chicago penalty (Sunday night) is a function of him being as tall as he is,” Maurice said. “I didn’t like the call based on the way the game’s played. This guy doesn’t play across that line very often. He plays hard. He’s physical.

“Quite often, a lot of the hits meet Buff. He has the puck an awful lot, he moves it and guys try to finish their checks and end up on their butts. More than he’s hunting guys down, just look at that he hasn’t been in a tremendous number of fights over the course of his career because he hasn’t crossed that line with a lot of people and because nobody’s lining up to fight a guy that big too often.

“If you’re that kind of player that’s constantly crossing the line, you’ve got a lot of fighting majors on your scorecard and he doesn’t.”

Harrison likely to replace Byfuglien

Byfuglien didn’t practise with the team this morning and wasn’t present for any interviews. The coach said it wasn’t related to the hearing, but to rest and/or maintenance issues.

The Jets said today, before knowing the length of the suspension, that they’ll be ready to carry on no matter how the NHL punishes Byfuglien.

“It’s something we’ve dealt with the entire year,” Ladd said. “I think we’re comfortable having a few guys out the lineup at this point, knowing we have (people) to step up and fill that void somehow.

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“Sometimes it makes us play a closer team game and good things come of that.”

Centre Jim Slater said the team’s experience through a pair of lengthy injury crises will now come into play.

“We’ve done it a lot this year without a lot of our top guys in the lineup,” Slater said. “It’s one of those things that, if or when it happens, the guys in here will be prepared. We have guys who can come into this lineup and fill some spots. Obviously it’s a big spot with Buff, what he brings, but like I said, we’ve done a lot of it this year. We’ll be fine.”

The Jets’ next action is Saturday afternoon at the MTS Centre against the Vancouver Canucks. It looked today like defenceman Jay Harrison might be the one sliding into the lineup in Byfuglien’s absence.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca