Jannik Hansen. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images)
(CBS) As the NHL’s Department of Player Safety mulls whether or not to suspend Jannik Hansen for the forearm he delivered to the back of Marian Hossa’s head on Tuesday night, Blackhawks TV color commentator Eddie Olczyk said he thinks the league will suspend the Canucks forward.
“I would be surprised if he wasn’t,” Olczyk told The McNeil and Spiegel Show.
Hansen received only a two-minute minor penalty for his actions, but Hossa was forced out of the game with a head injury. The referees deemed Hansen’s hit wasn’t intentional – that he was only going for the puck.
“To me, there’s no doubt in my mind (he hit Hossa intentionally,)” Olczyk said. “Once he didn’t play the puck, he had one thing in his mind, and that was to put his forearm or elbow in the back of the head of Marian Hossa. If you go by what happened with Duncan Keith last year with Daniel Sedin where the principle point of contact was the head, you would assume that Jannik Hansen would get suspended.
“It was a really quick play. How eerie is it that where Hossa got hit last night is probably within a foot and a half of where he got hit last year in the playoffs. I would think that with the call and the rules and making sure that players are in control of their actions, I would be surprised if he did not get suspended.”
Hansen’s disciplinary hearing with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety is scheduled for Wednesday.
