Ryan Garbutt: How Many Games?

The Department of Player Safety and Brendan Shanahan got itself another incident on Sunday. And Dustin Penner of the Anaheim Ducks helped bring attention to it.

Penner went on Twitter after the game to address the hit that the Dallas Stars' Ryan Garbutt put on him during Sunday's game between the Stars and Ducks, a game I was at and saw in live time. Penner pointed out on Twitter that the referees had missed the call and the league announced on Monday that Garbutt has been offered an in-person hearing, meaning he is likely to face a suspension of six games or more. Although with what has happened recently in in-person hearing suspensions, it could most likely be five games.

Garbutt had finished serving a penalty when he skated towards Penner, left his feet, and caught Penner in the head with his shoulder. And with head hits, you're most likely to get the call. And the NHL will be looking at Garbutt for charging and an illegal hit to the head. Penner did not return to the game and did not travel with the team to Toronto.

Penner is known for being an active user of Twitter and he's not afraid to take to it to express something concerning himself or something tied to his involvement. He showed the world what happened and the NHL Player Safety office listened.

Since I saw this in live time, I can give a definite answer for this. This was a head hit. And a deadly one at best. Garbutt left his feet and went directly towards Penner's head. He didn't even stop to consider what he was doing. What Garbutt should've done was check him on the body. It also seemed like a blind hit as well, although Penner could possibly see out of the corner of his eye that Garbutt was coming. Either way, it's directed at the head, which is definitely suspendable and Penner did not come back into the game. I'm a little surprised Garbutt was not ejected for this hit because it seemed like he would. Did the referees not even pick this up when they blew the whistle?

Since this is a head hit and it's an in-person hearing, I think that Garbutt will get either six or seven games. You can't hit the head. The reason Lapierre and McLeod got five-game suspensions is because they didn't directly target the head. This one should have more punishment to it. So, in that case, I would expect six or seven games for Garbutt.