The NHL has suspended Radko Gudas of the Anaheim Ducks for five games because of a hit on Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Matthew's agent has blasted the NHL for the length of the suspension, considering Matthews is out for the season.
Now, members of the Maple Leafs are also speaking out about the suspension length, per Greg Wyshynski of ESPN.
“I think the league could've done a little bit more, seeing as our best player [and] our captain [is] not going to be with us for the rest of the year. That's a big loss,: Matthews' linemate Matthew Knies said. “To see a player go down like that and be in as much pain as he was, and a guy like that who is a repeat offender, I don't think it was enough. You just hope that you can trust them that they're doing the right thing,”
This is not the first time Gudas has been suspended for a hit. He was suspended for three games in 2015 for a hit on Mike Zibanejad, six more games in 2016, and then ten games in 2017. Further, he was suspended in 2019 for two games for a high stick on Nikita Kucherov. John Tavares noted this when speaking about the suspension length.
“Could have easily been longer,” Tavares said. “I believe Auston's been ruled out for quite a while, right? So it's going to [miss] more than five games, so it easily could've been longer. Can't say five games is nothing, but it could have been longer.”
Even the head coach of the Leafs, Craig Berube, has spoken out about the length of Gudas' suspension.
“Looking at it, we lose our guy, our captain for the year. It doesn't seem like enough for me. You lose your star player for the year. The guy doing it is a repeat offender. It just doesn't seem like enough,” Berube said. “They've got a job to do, and for the most part they do a real good job. We're going to obviously be upset about the suspension because it happened to our player.”
The Leafs are 28-27-12 on the year, which places them last in the Atlantic Division. They return to the ice on Sunday against the Minnesota Wild.
