NHL hits Coyotes' Torres with 25-game ban

NHL hits Coyotes' Torres with 25-game ban

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Chicago Blackhawks forward Marian Hossa gets laid out by a hit from Raffi Torres that earns the former Islander a 25-game ban.

NHL senior VP of player safety Brendan Shanahan unloaded all of the discipline he's withheld from star players in the playoffs on Saturday afternoon, hammering Coyotes forward Raffi Torres with a 25-game suspension for his vicious hit on Blackhawks forward Marian Hossa in Game 3 of their Western Conference quarterfinal series Tuesday night.

Torres' suspension is severe because he is a repeat offender, because of the nature of his offenses, because Hossa was hospitalized briefly following the hit and sustained a "severe injury," and likely because Shanahan has had enough of the seemingly unending and excessive violence of the first round of these NHL playoffs.

"This (hit) is a violation of three NHL rules," Shanahan said in his video on NHL.com explaining the suspension, "interference, charging and illegal check to the head."

Shanahan has been criticized for misjudging several cases already, most notably when he did not suspend Predators All-Star defenseman Shea Weber for slamming the head of Red Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg into the glass, WWE style. Weber received only a $ 2,500 fine. Also notable was Penguins forward James Neal receiving just a one-game suspension for taking runs at Flyers rookie Sean Couturier and All-Star forward Claude Giroux, hitting both players up high and sending Giroux who, like Couturier, missed games during the regular season with a concussion wobbling back up ice.

Torres' disciplinary history, though, played a major role in the length of this suspension. Torres has been fined or suspended five previous times including recently for hits very similar to this one.

"First, this violent and dangerous hit caused a severe injury," Shanahan said. "Second, Torres not only is a repeat offender, as defined by the CBA, his extensive supplemental discipline history consists mainly of acts very similar to this one, including two this season."

Shanahan went on to list Torres' previous infractions while showing video of each hit:

- "Torres received supplemental discipline for this hit to the head of (Calgary's) David Moss in October 2007.

- "He received supplemen tal discipline for this late hit to the head of (St. Louis') Patrik Berglund in March of 2009.

- "He received supplemental discipline for this elbow to the head of (Edmonton's) Jordan Eberle last April.

- "He received supplemental discipline for his elbow to the head of (Columbus') Jan Hejda this past December.

- "And he receive supplemental discipline for this charge on which he made contact to the head of (Minnesota's) Nate Prosser this past December."

Torres' 25-game suspension guarantees the No. 3-seed Coyotes will have to play without him for the remainder of this postseason, since he began serving the suspension in Game 4 and Phoenix can play a maximum of 24 games to win the Stanley Cup.

The suspension of the 30-year-old ex-Islander, whom the Isles drafted with the fifth overall pick in the 2000 NHL entry draft, will carry over into next season if the 25 games are not served in the playoffs.

If that happens, Torres would be prohibited from playing in preseason games next fall, and because Torres is classified as a repeat offender under the league's collective bargaining agreement, he would forfeit $ 21,341.46 in salary for every regular-season game in which he is ineligible to play.