Suspension #6 of the Preseason, Not the One I Was Expecting

Anaheim Ducks forward Jean-Francois Jacques has been suspended for the remainder of the preseason and for five regular-season games for leaving the bench on a legal line change for the purpose of starting a fight with Vancouver Canucks forward Mike Duco during a preseason game on Sept. 24, NHL Senior Vice President of Player Safety Brendan Shanahan announced Tuesday.



I was expecting a ruling on the Tom Sestito's hit during the Monday game between the Flyers and Rangers. It is the first time I'm aware of such a hit that is expecting a response from Shanahan.

I don't know why I was suspecting an immediate response. If you look at the six suspensions, the only ones that has occurred the day after are ones where the team is playing that day. One of those was Buffalo's Boyes. Plus, that wasn't as bad of an incident as the others so far this preseason.

Calgary's Letourneau-Leblond suspension came two days after the incident and two days before their next game.

The duel suspensions for seperate incidents with Minnesota's Staubitz and Columbus' Wisniewski did not happen like the previous examples. The game was on Friday the 23. Both players were suspended indefinately as Minnesota played the next day (Saturday) and Columbus played two days later on Sunday. The suspensions came on Monday the 26th, the day before Minnesota's next game on Tuesday and the day of Columbus' next game as they played that on the 26th. The indefinate suspensions gave the League the chance to properly look at the situations.

Philadelphia's Shelley was suspended on the 22nd, the day after his hit and the day of the next Flyers game (the one against the Red Wings with the banana). By the way, the London Police are reporting that they think they've identified the tosser and another banana was thrown towards the ice while Simmonds was skating, but the fruit never made it onto the rink.

Now, we get to Anaheim's Jacques. He was automatically suspended from the Ducks next game for starting a fight in the last five minutes of regulation. The Ducks next game was the day after his fight. The further suspension came the day before the next Ducks game, a full three days later.

I say all that to say this: We should expect to hear something from Shanahan on Sestito today, Wednesday. The Flyers next game is on Thursday. That is assuming there will be a suspension. If there is not, it will be interesting to see if there is a statement or video on that.

I'm waiting for that day too, whenever it comes. The day when there's a safety issue on the ice that Shanahan decides not suspend or further discipline. Will he explain why? Time will tell.

The Philadelphia Flyers are really dominating my blog posts of late, aren't they?