Player Safety announces suspension for Leafs winger Kyle Clifford
After fines were handed out by the Department of Player Safety for Simmonds, Maroon and Perry after their actions in the third period of the game last night, they handed out a more severe discipline to Kyle Clifford. Early in the first period last night Clifford received a major and game misconduct for his hit on Ross Colton. Here's the rationale from Player Safety's perspective:
After Colton releases the puck Clifford approaches from behind and having seen nothing, but Colton's numbers for some time, delivers a forceful, check to the defenseless Colton, driving him dangerously into the boards.
This is boarding.
It is important to note, that this is not a case where a sudden or unexpected movement by Colton prior to contact changes, a legal check into an illegal one. From the moment Colton approaches the puck battle until the hit is delivered Clifford sees nothing but his numbers.
While we have heard an argument that Clifford does make some attempt to deliver this contact legally. This remains a forceful hit to a defenseless player, who is no longer in possession of the puck. What causes this play to rise to the level of supplemental discipline is the angle from which Clifford approaches this hit, which makes Colton particularly defenseless combined with his force.
If Clifford wants to avoid supplemental discipline on this play, he must further adjust his course to deliver legal body, contact, avoid the check entirely, or at the very least, minimize the force of the hit. Instead he finishes with force driving the defenseless Colton into the glass dangerously.
To summarize, this is boarding, Clifford has been fined 3 times during his 751 game NHL career, The department of player. Safety has suspended. Kyle Clifford For one playoff game
Considering he received a major and game misconduct for the hit which essentially gave him a games suspension last night, and that Colton played the rest of the game, the suspension seems a little harsh for playoff hockey. Additionally, Jared Spurgeon of Minnesota received only a 5000 fine for deliberately attempting to break Pavelski Buchnevich's ankle during game 1 of the St. Louis, Minnesota series.
The DOPS continues to show a lack of consistency with their reasonings, suspensions and fines. Yes, Clifford's hit was unnecessary and on the "blindside" of Colton, but he continued to play the rest of the game and as mentioned earlier, it happened early in the first essentially giving Clifford a games suspension at that point.
Not to mention, plays like this that occur in the playoffs often come with less discipline than they do in the regular season. In the regular season this is most certainly a suspension and in this case it would seem it would be a 2 game suspension, but again, playoff hockey.
| POLL | ||
MAI 3 | 668 ANSWERS Player Safety announces suspension for Leafs winger Kyle Clifford Was Clifford's supplemental discipline warranted? | ||
| Yes, garbage hit | 176 | 26.3 % |
| No, it's the playoffs.. | 93 | 13.9 % |
| The 5 and a game should have been enough | 357 | 53.4 % |
| He should have gotten more games | 42 | 6.3 % |
| List of polls | ||
