Stick-swinging Simon suspended record 25 games
NEW YORK -- Chris Simon of the New York Islanders was suspended Sunday for an NHL-record 25 games, and will miss the rest of the regular season and playoffs as punishment for his two-handed stick attack to the face of Ryan Hollweg.
Simon will miss New York's final 15 regular-season contests and the entire postseason, if the Islanders reach the playoffs. If the Islanders play fewer than 10 playoff games this year, the suspension will carry over to next season.
The ban is the longest in terms of games missed in NHL history. Marty McSorley was suspended 23 games in February 2000 for knocking out Donald Brashear with a stick-swinging hit. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman stretched that punishment to one year, and McSorley never played in the league again.
"The National Hockey League will not accept the use of a stick in the manner and fashion in which Mr. Simon used his Thursday night," league disciplinarian Colin Campbell said in a statement. "As a consequence of his actions, Mr. Simon has forfeited the privilege of playing in an NHL game again this season, regardless of how many games the Islanders ultimately play."
The Islanders are seventh in the Eastern Conference, three points above the playoff cutoff.
|
|
| Chris Simon looks dazed after nailing Ryan Hollweg with a stick to the face. (AP) |
Campbell announced the punishment one day after holding a hearing at the league office in New York. Simon was banned indefinitely Friday, following his vicious hit in retaliation for a hard check by the New York Rangers' Hollweg on Thursday night.
Based on the one-year, $1 million contract Simon signed with the Islanders before this season, he will lose at least $80,200.
This is Simon's sixth NHL suspension and the league's longest since Vancouver's Todd Bertuzzi was sidelined 13 regular-season games and seven in the playoffs for his blindside punch to the head of Colorado's Steve Moore in March 2004. Bertuzzi wasn't reinstated until 17 months later, after the yearlong lockout.
"There is absolutely no place in hockey for what I did," Simon said in a statement released by the team during Saturday night's 5-2 victory over Washington. "What you saw Thursday is not the person, player and competitor that I am. I know my teammates and opponents over my 14 years in the NHL understand that."
Simon said he was diagnosed Friday with a concussion as a result of Hollweg's hit that drove him into the boards. His inability to fly made it necessary for Campbell to come to New York for the hearing instead of holding it in Toronto.
"I do not remember much about Thursday's incident," Simon said in a statement. "When I saw the tape on Friday morning, it explained a lot to me when I saw the look on my face after being hit into the boards. I was completely out of it. When I met with the media about 30 minutes later, I still was not feeling well."
Simon said he still felt symptoms Saturday morning when he went to New York for the 90-minute hearing.
