NHL discipline czar Brendan Shanahan has suspended Edmonton Oilers defenseman Andy Sutton indefinitely for his hit on Carolina’s Alexei Ponikarovsky.
The incident occurred in the third period of Edmonton’s 5-3 loss to the ‘Canes on Wednesday night; Sutton has the option of an in-person hearing with Shanahan to discuss the incident, according to NHL.com.
This is Sutton’s second suspension in 41 days (he got a five-gamer for a headshot on Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog back in late October) and fourth of his career -- he was suspended four games for a headshot on Darcy Tucker and a two games for boarding Pascal Dupuis.
As such, we could be entering uncharted waters with the impending Shanaban. I don’t know if you can classify Sutton as a repeat offender anymore, because he’s sorta entered serial offender territory. Remember, this was the same guy that didn’t seem overly concerned about changing his game after the Landeskog hit.
“I’ll continue to play my style,” he told the National Post. “You have to play close to the opposing player and I’ll still play aggressively.”
