The Ontario Hockey League announced today that Kitchener Rangers forward Tyler Randell and Mark Zanetti of the Ottawa 67's would both be suspended indefinitely after preliminary reviews of their incidents.
Randell was suspended for a hit to the head which typically this season has carried a 10 game suspension. The question is now with it being playoffs does Branch really say that Randell is suspended for 10 playoff games? Generally playoff suspensions have been lighter then regular season suspensions in the past as playoff games are much more important. Randell scored 2 goals for the Rangers in Game #1 vs the Owen Sound Attack in their 6-2 win and was named the games second star. The hit occurred early in the first period. Randell came down the ice and caught up to Gavurs who had the puck at the time and was along the boards. I watched the hit a few times and it looks almost like a clean hit but when you watch the Rogers replay it appears as though Randell follows through and his elbow connects with Gavurs's head. Randell looked to have tried to connect with the shoulder but never really leaned in for a hit. Gavrus would remain on the ice and have to be helped off the ice by trainers of both teams and went to the dressing room with what would appear to be a concussion. I did not watch the whole game so I am unaware if he returned or not. I think this is a minor hit with no malice or intent. To me Randell deserves 2-5 games since he is being suspended, however it is always difficult to predict what the OHL discipline team will do.
The Zanetti incident was a match penalty for spearing during the pre game warm ups. Since the incident occurred prior to the game there is no footage of it in the OHL archive. Since the incident occurred before the game I believe the OHL has to take that a little more seriously. I believe Zanetti deserves at least 5 games based on the fact that he was given a match before the game even started.
OHL Discipline Release
No comments:
Post a Comment