The ruling is in, and the Washington Capitals have lost Garnet Hathaway for three games. The forward has been given a three-game suspension for the spitting incident on Monday night, which also earned him a match penalty. Hathaway spat towards Anaheim Ducks defenseman Erik Gudbranson while officials tried to separate them.
Hathaway will miss the next three contests and is eligible to return on November 29th against the Tampa Bay Lightning. His absence forced the team to make several transactions earlier today and when combined with injuries to Carl Hagelin, Nic Dowd and Nicklas Backstrom, tests the Capitals’ depth.
It is important to note that this suspension was not handed down by the Department of Player Safety. As Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports, any appeal of the ban would go to the commissioner himself, not an independent arbitrator because it is fewer than six games.
stupid, stupid, stupid
Are they going to make him submit to an HIV / Hep C test? The police do it when someone spits on them.
It would be interesting if they punished the offender and made it the next 3 games vs the team the incident happened against. That would be a more honest fine!
That wouldn’t work with interconference games because there’s only one more game against Anaheim this season (December 5 or 6). If the offender doesn’t make an NHL roster the following season, he’s not taking a full suspension
Jimmy,
It could. Suspension leads into the next season till games vs that team are finished.
And if there’s a Shipachyov or some guy who can’t make the NHL club? They get away with it