P3L Suspended for Five Games

 

 

Scott Cruicshank reported via twitter that Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond has been suspended for five games thanks to his hit from behind during the game in Vancouver on Tuesday. Leblonde was given a two minute boarding penalty and a 10 minute misconduct at the time.

The incident in question didn’t result in any grave injury to the victim, but it could have. The act was unnecessarily dangerous so it’s encouraging to see the NHL punishing swiftly and with a stiff penalty (relative to the old guard, at least). Also refreshing is the clear manner new disipline czar Brendan Shanahan chose to communicate the rationale behind the suspension:

I somewhat question how long the suspension would have been in the regular season or if the player had not have been a known pugilist P3L. That’s mostly just cynicism left over from the Campbell era though.