The NHL dropped the hammer on Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman Monday, slapping him with a massive 10-game suspension – the longest punishment handed out this season.
The suspension came after Hartman violently shoved Ottawa Senators forward Tim Stutzle face-first into the ice during a face-off in the Senators’ 6-0 blowout win over the Wild.
"This is not a hockey play," the NHL stated bluntly in their suspension video.
Hartman tried claiming it was all an accident – that he was just trying to keep his balance by grabbing onto Stutzle. The league wasn’t buying it.
"We disagree," was their simple, direct response.
What really got Hartman in hot water was his track record. The 30-year-old forward has been getting into trouble about every 60 games throughout his 663-game NHL career.
Just this past April, he earned himself a 3-game timeout for throwing his stick at a referee after losing in overtime to Vegas. Not exactly the behavior you want from a veteran player who was a first-round draft pick back in 2013.
The league clearly felt it was time to send a serious message. Ten games is a lot of time to think about your actions – and a lot of lost paychecks.
And here’s the kicker: if Hartman doesn’t clean up his act, his next suspension could be even longer. The NHL’s patience with repeat offenders only goes so far.
For a player of his experience level (he’s been in the league for nearly a decade), there’s really no excuse for this kind of dangerous behavior on the ice. The league got this one right.
