NHL commissioner Gary Bettman will hear Calgary Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson’s appeal of his four-game suspension on Monday.
Andersson received the ban Sunday for a hit against Blue Jackets forward Patrik Laine during the Flames’ 3-1 loss on Friday in Columbus.
He could lose nearly $95,000 in pay for the incident that occurred as the final horn sounded, when he lowered the boom on Laine as the latter was attempting to score into an empty net.
Andersson was whistled for a major penalty for elbowing Laine, who did not travel with the Blue Jackets for their game against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday. The team said he is day-to-day.
The NHL said Andersson’s launch with his elbow toward Laine’s head, the force of the hit and that the game effectively was out of reach at the time “combined to elevate this hit to the level of supplemental discipline” in its video explaining the reasoning for the suspension on Saturday.
Andersson, 26, has three points (one goal, two assists) in five games this season. He has 164 points (28 goals, 136 assists) and 187 penalty minutes in 382 games with the Flames, who drafted him in the second round in 2015.
–Field Level Media