The Department of Player Safety has decided to issue a one-game suspension to San Jose Sharks forward Kevin Labanc for his slew foot on St. Louis Blues forward Tyler Bozak last night. As the accompanying video explains:
It is important to note that there are many occasions during the course of a game where players use either their legs or stick and upper body to restrain or impede opponents, or to gain leverage during a puck battle. In the vast majority of these circumstances, these plays can be adequately punished by in-game penalties.
What causes this play to rise to the level of supplemental discipline is the speed the players are traveling, and their proximity to the boards.
The league notes that Labanc has not been fined or suspended in the past, which would have been taken into account when determining the length of this suspension. So too would an injury to Bozak, but the Blues forward was fortunate to not suffer a serious injury on the play.
Bozak did note how upset he was about the play, calling it “dangerous” and noting that he was lucky to not suffer an injury in that situation. Labanc insisted that he did not purposely deliver the slew foot, telling reporters he was just trying to battle hard.
So Labanc gets suspended for doing this for the first time but Subban has done it at least 3 times already this season and just gets fined. Pretty ridiculous
Well they’re scared to suspend pk subban because then half the fans will call them racist lmao. So dumb.
Great. Now do PK Subban.