NHL suspends Duncan Keith six games

Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith earned himself a game ejection earlier this week, when he struck Minnesota Wild forward Charlie Coyle in the face with his stick mid-game.

The NHL’s Department of Player Safety offered the blue liner an in-person hearing for the offense, and now the verdict has been decided; with just five games left in the regular season, Keith will sit out those final five and the first game of the post-season with a suspension for the hit.

The league delivered the six-game suspension for high sticking late on Friday afternoon, explaining that the hit was intentional and made with a cognizant decision on Keith’s part to make contact with his opponent.

The video starts by explaining that the altercation was started by Coyle, who ‘shoves [Keith] lightly into the boards’:

“As Keith works to play the puck, Coyle pivots to establish body position with his free hand. During this, Coyle’s stick becomes entangled with his teammate’s skates. A combination of a light shove from Coyle and the tangled stick causes Keith to lose his balance and fall to the ice.

While on his back, Keith looks at Coyle, winds his arm back, then slashes his stick dangerously and violently directly into the face of Coyle.

It is important to note that Keith is in perfect control of his stick at all time. This motion is made intentionally, not recklessly. This is not a case where two players are battling for position or puck control, and a stick rides up suddenly; this is not a defensive high stick.

It is also not a case in which a player was off-balance and recklessly swings his stick in an uncontrolled manner with an unexpected result. Keith is looking directly at his opponent, winds his arm back, and then whips it forward in a chopping motion aimed at Coyle’s face.”

Although the Department of Player Safety confirms that Coyle did indeed cause Keith to fall to the ice in the first place, this action was deemed irrelevant to the action made just moments later; the two events within the play are not considered interconnected, and one is not used as an excuse for the other.

The league also added that Keith’s suspension history – which includes a suspension for a similar high stick just a few years ago in addition to one other suspension – played into the decision to suspend him for the length that he went out. The previous high stick, which was described at the time as a ‘retaliatory high stick’, earned the blue liner a one game suspension. Both hits are considered intentional and retaliatory acts of violence, and are considered history-creating for the player.

There was no game-ending injury on the play.

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