The National Hockey League has handed Anaheim Ducks defenceman Chris Pronger an eight-game suspension for stomping on Vancouver Canucks forward Ryan Kesler in a game Wednesday night.
The team has nine games remaining in the regular season, starting Saturday night against the St. Louis Blues. He is eligible to return for the team's final game on Apr. 6 against the Phoenix Coyotes.
The decision came after Pronger had a phone hearing with NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell on Saturday afternoon.
The league initially chose not to punish the Ducks' captain because it didn't have proper video evidence to review the incident, but the NHL saw a new angle on Thursday night with a closer view.
While the original game footage showed the incident from a distance as the puck was being cleared out of Anaheim's zone, the second version zoomed in on Kesler and Pronger as they got tangled along the back boards.
The incident happened in the opening minute of the second period in Anaheim's zone after a dump in from the blue line by Canucks defenceman Sami Salo.
Kesler - one of two Canuck forwards who chased down the puck behind the goal line - collided with Pronger along the boards and fell, and it looked as though Kesler wrapped his legs around Pronger's feet.
The Ducks captain appeared to disengage from Kesler, but there was also a form of a stomp or a push with some downward motion from his foot.
"He stomped on me," Kesler told the Vancouver Sun after the game. "He got me on the calf."
It's the eighth time that Pronger has been suspended in his 14-year NHL career and his third in less than a year.
Last May, he received a one-game suspension for his hit on Detroit Red Wings forward Tomas Holmstrom in Game 3 of the Western Conference Final, and was suspended for a game in June for hitting Ottawa's Dean McAmmond in the head with his forearm in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.
The team has nine games remaining in the regular season, starting Saturday night against the St. Louis Blues. He is eligible to return for the team's final game on Apr. 6 against the Phoenix Coyotes.
The decision came after Pronger had a phone hearing with NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell on Saturday afternoon.
The league initially chose not to punish the Ducks' captain because it didn't have proper video evidence to review the incident, but the NHL saw a new angle on Thursday night with a closer view.
While the original game footage showed the incident from a distance as the puck was being cleared out of Anaheim's zone, the second version zoomed in on Kesler and Pronger as they got tangled along the back boards.
The incident happened in the opening minute of the second period in Anaheim's zone after a dump in from the blue line by Canucks defenceman Sami Salo.
Kesler - one of two Canuck forwards who chased down the puck behind the goal line - collided with Pronger along the boards and fell, and it looked as though Kesler wrapped his legs around Pronger's feet.
The Ducks captain appeared to disengage from Kesler, but there was also a form of a stomp or a push with some downward motion from his foot.
"He stomped on me," Kesler told the Vancouver Sun after the game. "He got me on the calf."
It's the eighth time that Pronger has been suspended in his 14-year NHL career and his third in less than a year.
Last May, he received a one-game suspension for his hit on Detroit Red Wings forward Tomas Holmstrom in Game 3 of the Western Conference Final, and was suspended for a game in June for hitting Ottawa's Dean McAmmond in the head with his forearm in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.
