TROUBA GETS TWO-GAME SUSPENSION

SHORT HILLS, N.J. Jacob Trouba has been handed a two-game suspension for his hit to the head of Ottawa Senators winger Mark Stone, who is sidelined indefinitely.

The Winnipeg Jets defenceman, who caught Stone with a shoulder check Sunday, was handed the ban after a hearing with the NHL’s department of player safety Monday. The NHL said in its explanation that Trouba, a 22-year-old from Rochester, Mich., targeted Stone’s head.

“The onus here is on Trouba to deliver a full-body hit through his opponent’s core. Instead, Trouba takes a poor angle of approach, picking Stone’s head and making it the main point of contact on a forceful hit,” the league said.

Former NHL goaltender Jamie MacLennan, an analyst on the Senators’ regional broadcasts on TSN, said the Jets’ D-man crossed the line.

Trouba didn’t have to make the hit, and “that’s why I say the hit is avoidable,” MacLennan said Monday. “The puck has been distributed already. It wasn’t a late hit, it’s just him finishing his check. That hit is avoidable on a couple of different levels.

“If you’re going to make that hit, you have to make sure it’s clean because it’s an open-ice hit, through the middle, and the head is the principal point of contact. I think it falls into all the parameters when you’re doing that little checklist for suspension.”