The NHL has suspended Blues forward Chris Stewart three games after his illegal hit on Niklas Kronwall in Tuesday's 2-1 win over Detroit.
As you can see in the Youtube video clip in this blog, Kronwall was attempting to protect a puck along the boards when Stewart pushed him from behind. Kronwall went into the boards and lie on the ice briefly before leaving the game for the rest of the period. He returned at the start of the second period.
Stewart received a five-minute majory penalty for checking from behind and a game misconduct. As a result of the three-game suspension, Stewart will forfeit $46,621.62. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
NHL vice president Brendan Shanahan, who heads the league's player safety department, acknowledged in his ruling today that Stewart has had no previous suspensions and that Kronwall escaped injury. But Shanahan's final determination was that the hit was an illegal check on a defenseless player.
"Stewart is directly behind Kronwall and sees his numbers for quite some time," Shanahan said in a video released by the NHL. "This does not appear to us to be an attempt to reverse hit Stewart, and it is our opinion that Kronwall does not contribute significantly to the violent collision with the boards that results from the shove from behind by Stewart. The onus is on Stewart to avoid this hit or minimize."
Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said this afternoon that the club accepted Shanahan's ruling.
"It's a situation that we accept and we move on with," Armstrong said. "But I just want to be 100 % crystal clear that our support for the type of player Stewart is hasn't wavered. He's a very honest, hard player. This is a hockey play that went awry, but I don't think it's any reflection on the type of player that Chris Stewart is. Playing over four years in the league and with 200 games, he's a physical player and this is the first time he's had any type of incident like this. I'm sure we don't expect him to have another like this."
Armstrong was part of the conference call Wednesday morning with Stewart and Shanahan.
"I thought it went very well," Armstrong said. "Chris explained his position very well. Brendan Shanahan and his group understood where he was coming from and listened. Talking to Brendan a little while ago, I think he felt torn on this one because he knows the type of player Chris is. Torn in the positive sense for Chris Stewart, not the negative sense.
"I think that in the summertime when players and management talk about player safety, you have to maintain that same thought process (during the season). It's easy to talk about in the summer, but we want player safety to be at the forefront. As I said, to me this is a hockey play that went awry, but there are the consequences when plays go awry."
Before the ruling was announced, Blues coach Ken Hitchcock contended that Kronwall was initiating a reverse check on Stewart.
"I saw it and I understand it was a potential reverse check," Hitchcock said. "Stewy anticipated it ... that's Kronwall's forte ... he's good at it. It was a reverse check and Stewy pushed off the reverse check. A big guy, he's got 30 pounds on (Kronwall) and he's got three inches on him ... what are you going to do? Stewy thought he was coming back at him to protect the puck, and that's what good defensemen do. They reverse check you, so they maintain possession, so you go flying by or right on your (rear end) usually.
"But I think what scares everybody is the way he went into the boards. Whoa, boy! I don't know how it's ruled on. It's a hockey play. It's not a deliberate attempt to injure or anything like that. It's a hockey play that went a little wrong. You've got to figure out balance of responsibility, what percentages does each player bear? There's a mechanism in place for the protection of the players, and you've got to respect that."
Hitchcock said the Blues don't plan to recall a forward from Peoria. He is planning to put Evgeny Grachev in Stewart's spot on a line with center Patrik Berglund and right winger Matt D'Agostini.
Ryan Reaves, who was a healthy scratch Tuesday, would be inserted into the lineup in Stewart's spot.
