Photo Credit: Eric Bolte/USA Today Sports
The Ottawa Senators will be without forward Mark Stone for two games as the result of his suspension after an illegal check he made on Saturday night’s game against the Detroit Red Wings.
Stone made contact with Red Wing’s forward Landon Ferraro halfway through the second period while chasing what seemed to be a loose puck. While trying to redirect his motion, Stone’s shoulder comes across Ferraro’s jaw and knocked him to the ice. The check was ruled an illegal check to the head.
Ferraro, though attended to on the ice, received no injury from the check. In a statement to on the Red Wings official site, Ferraro said that he had tried to avoid the check by pulling back as much as he could and was briefly shaken up by the hit but returned to the game and attended practice on Monday. Ferraro also stated that he does not believe Stone had meant to hit him in such a way.
In Stone’s description of the play, he states that he was attempting to collect a loose puck and once he realized that Ferraro had reached the puck first, he moved to make an attempt to slow down Ferraro to prevent the opportunity of an odd-man rush to the Ottawa net. This description of the play was accepted by the Department of Player Safety, but is still an illegal head check despite circumstances.
After Stone’s hearing with the Department of Player Safety on Monday morning, it was announced around 2 p.m. that Stone would receive a two-game suspension.
The senior vice president of player safety, Stephane Quintal, explained the decision in a league video stating: “Once Stone changes from attacking a loose puck to initiating a hit, the onus is on him to deliver that hit in a legal manner. Here, in part because he was not originally planning on delivering a hit, he delivers a reckless shoulder to the head of an opponent, making the head the main point of contact.”
This is Stone’s first suspension in his NHL career of114 games, making this is first offense. Stone currently leads the Senators with 13 points in 11 games.
Following his two-game suspension, Stone will return for play on Nov. 7.
