Phoenix Coyotes tough guy Paul Bissonnette didn't take too kindly to Los Angeles Kings forward Jordan Nolan's hit on his teammate Rostislav Klesla, and he left the bench to start an altercation with him in Sunday's preseason matchup between the teams, which led to him being suspended for ten regular-season games by the NHL's Director of Player Safety Brendan Shanahan.
During Sunday night's exhibition game between the two teams in Phoenix, Nolan glided in and nailed Klesla with a hit that was deemed legal by the referees and no penalty was called on the play. The hit was brutal and Klesla was carted off of the ice with a stretcher. Bissonnette took exception and looked to start an altercation with Nolan as a result.
Shanahan said no punishment will be handed out to Nolan because under the NHL guidelines it was a clean hit, and there wasn't even a penalty called on the ice. CBS Sports reports that the NHL had an easy decision with Bissonnette because any time a player leaves the bench to start an altercation it's an automatic ten-game suspension.
Shanahan explained his decision and talked about the hit as he usually does in an official video:
While there wasn't a penalty on the initial play, Nolan got into a scrum with Klesla's teammate Martin Hanzal and was handed four minutes in penalties for the infraction. After Nolan's penalty expired and he came out of the box, Nolan and four other players were given 10-minute misconducts as a large fracas broke out. That prompted Bissonnette to leave the bench in hopes of getting at Nolan.
Phoenix head coach Dave Tippett wasn't sure why Bissonnette was penalized, as he believed it was during a change.
"It was a change. [Bissonnette] was next going. I don't know if he jumped early or what the situation was but it wasn't much of an altercation," Tippett said in comments tweeted by AZCentral.com reporter Sarah McLellan, according to NHL.com.
Klesla was released from the hospital, according to NHL.com, with whiplash and a concussion, and Tippett said he was resting at home.
"He probably has a little bit of a headache but ... he's home, which is a good sign," Tippett told NHL.com, adding there was no timetable for Klesla's return to the ice."
Ironically enough, Bissonnette will be eligible to return to the ice on Oct. 24 once his ten-game suspension is up, and that night the Coyotes take on the Kings once again.
Bissonnette played in 28 games for Phoenix last year in the 48-game lockout-shortened season, and put up six points and 36 penalty minutes. In his career, Bissonnette has 14 points through 163 NHL games and has racked up 287 penalty minutes.
Last season, just one year removed from a trip to the Western Conference Finals, the Coyotes finished 21-18-9 with 51 points and didn't qualify for the postseason.
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