Blues forward Barbashev gets one-game suspension

Don’t look now, but another Blues player has been suspended.

Valuable fourth-line forward Ivan Barbashev was given a one-game suspension early Friday evening after a hearing with NHL Player Safety earlier in the day.

The league determined that Barbashev delivered an illegal check to the head of Boston’s Marcus Johansson in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday against the Bruins.

Barbashev was not penalized on the play. Before the suspension came down, coach Craig Berube was asked if he was surprised that the league would hold a hearing for a non-penalized play.

“Well, I mean, they’re going to look at things that happen in games, and that’s just part of it,” he said. “It’s physical hockey, it’s heavy hockey out there both ways and they’re going to look at some stuff once in a while. So that’s the way it goes.”

Last week, Oskar Sundqvist received a one-game suspension for boarding Boston defenseman Matt Grzelcyk in Game 2 of the series. Grzelcyk went into concussion protocol and hasn’t played since. Sundqvist sat out Game 3, a 7-2 Blues loss.