The Washington Capitals will be without top-line center Nicklas Backstrom for Game 4 of their series against the Boston Bruins on Thursday night because Brendan Shanahan suspended Backstrom one game on Tuesday night.
Backstrom was given a match penalty as Game 3 came to a close on Monday night, a 4-3 Bruins win, because he gave a cross-check to the Bruins' Rich Peverley square in the face. The penalty carries an automatic one-game suspension and in this case Shanahan elected not to rescind it.
To the video we go ...
Shanny does a good job in this instance of showing what led up to the play, with Peverley and Alex Ovechkin trading trips. That's when Backstrom comes to Ovechkin's defense and throws a cross-check right to Peverley's face. Thankfully for him he was wearing a visor and that took the brunt of the blow.
Shanahan notes that Peverley is in a defensive position, not really a threat to Backstrom. He continues by saying that Backstrom's reaction is "excessive and reckless."
There was no injury to Peverley and Backstrom has no supplemental discipline history, he's one of the cleaner players out there, honestly.
With that said, I think Shanahan sort of had to uphold the match penalty ruling and suspend Backstrom. Call it bad time for the Capitals. The play comes right after Arron Asham of the Penguins cross-checked Brayden Schenn of the Flyers up high and that earned him a four-game suspension (he also punched Schenn in the back of the head afterward). This was basically the same thing here with Backstrom, except Backstrom's check was actually higher and caught Peverley in the face, or at least the visor.
The Capitals did play half the season without Backstrom as he sat out with a concussion, but he's a vital part of their offense and has been arguably the best skater in the series so far for Washington.
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