The NHL has suspended Calgary Flames forward Rene Bourque five games for his elbow to the head of Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom in a game Tuesday night.
The NHL announced the suspension Wednesday evening after a telephone hearing during the day with Brendan Shanahan, the league’s senior vice president for player safety and personnel. It was Bourque’s second offense in less than three weeks. He was previously suspended two games for a check from behind on Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook in a Dec. 18 contest.
Backstrom’s health status did figure into the suspension, Shanahan said in a video statement released by the NHL. Concussion testing was inconclusive on Wednesday morning and Backstrom will be reevaluated before the team flies to California Thursday afternoon for a pair of road games. Needless to say, his teammates weren’t happy.
“It was uncalled for. Obviously it was an elbow, a cheap shot,” Caps forward Jay Beagle said. “I haven’t talked to Backy today. Hopefully he’s feeling good. I know he kept playing. That’s good. It could’ve resulted in a serious injury.”
Beagle, of course, missed over two months thanks to his own concussion suffered in an Oct. 13 game at Pittsburgh during a fight with Penguins forward Arron Asham. Caps forward Troy Brouwer said he didn’t see the elbow when it happened on the ice and offered no opinion on the play when speaking with reporters Wednesday morning. But he does know Bourque a little bit. Both men came up with Chicago and were teammates there and with AHL Norfolk.
“He’s got a little edge to him. Sometimes he crosses the line,” Brouwer said. “He’s been suspended once this year already and once last year. Just from knowing him from playing when he was with Chicago, he’s got that little bit of an attitude to him as well. He plays a hard game and it’s just the style of it.”
Bourque loses $203,252.05 in salary and will miss games Jan. 5 at Boston, Jan. 7 vs. Minnesota, Jan. 10 vs. New Jersey, Jan. 12 vs. Anaheim and Jan. 14 vs. Los Angeles. He will be eligible to return Jan. 17 at San Jose. Suspended last month, Bourque is classified as a repeat offender under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. That means he forfeits his salary based on the number of games in the season (82), rather than the number of days (185). The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund. The incident happened at the 10 minute, 6 second-mark of the third period and Bourque received a two-minute penalty for elbowing.
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