NYQUIST PAYS PRICE
Red Wing gets 6-game ban
With the National Hockey League having suspended Detroit Red Wings forward Gustav Nyquist for six games, the second-guessing can begin.
Would the punishment have been harsher had Nyquist’s high stick punctured the eye of the Minnesota Wild’s Jared Spurgeon instead of poking him in the left cheek? And should it matter?
Obviously it did to the NHL’s department of player safety, which came down with the ruling Wednesday evening. The video explanation described the incident as a “dangerous act.”
Nyquist admitted during his phone hearing on Wednesday afternoon that it was an intentional retaliation after he was crosschecked by Spurgeon seconds earlier. Nyquist claimed to officials that he was trying to swing his stick around to cross-check Spurgeon when the blade of the stick pitchforked the face of the Wild defenceman. Spurgeon returned to the game after the incident. Nyquist had never been fined or suspended in his 317 career NHL games.
MELNYK GETS A LITTLE HELP FROM HIS FRIENDS
Hoping to raise $2 million for The Organ Project, Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk reached out to former Senators centre Mike Fisher to see if his wife, country singer Carrie Underwood, would perform at a private show for 650 people on March 31 at the Fairmont Royal York hotel in Toronto.
The answer was quick: No problem, and Underwood will do the show for free so all funds from the gala can be donated to the charity.
“(Fisher) stepped up big time, asked his wife if she’d come perform for us and she agreed,” Melnyk said.
JULIEN ON VACATION, THEN THE PHONE RINGS
Claude Julien and his wife were enjoying a winter vacation in rural Vermont this week when the phone rang. Marc Bergevin was on the line. A week after Julien was fired by the rival Boston Bruins, the Montreal Canadiens GM wanted to know if the veteran bench boss would return to the Habs.
“I said that very honestly when I was let go by the Bruins, I really felt like I should maybe sit back and let the season finish,” Julien said Wednesday. “That was my initial thought . ... Obviously, it happened quickly.”