Casey Cizikas suspended for “boarding” Brendan Smith.

The New York Islanders will be without one of their forwards the next time they play a game in the National Hockey League.

On Saturday the NHL's Department of Player Safety announced that veteran forward Casey Cizikas would receive a 1 game suspension following a dangerous hit he delivered to Carolina Hurricanes veteran defenseman Brendan Smith. The league suspended Cizikas under the "boarding" rule and determined that he did not do enough to either avoid contact entirely or to minimize the force of the blow once it was clear that Smith was not eligible to be hit into the boards.

If you were expecting Cizikas to get a longer suspension here you might be soothed by the fact that the league offered some solid reasoning as to why they opted to award Cizikas just the 1 game. In their explanation of the ruling, the league revealed that Cizikas' long established history of clean play in the NHL made his explanation for why the hit occurred seem more credible. Cizikas explained that he was anticipating Smith to open up in a way that would have made him eligible for the check, and the league acknowledged that they accepted his explanation.

Given that in the course of his 653 game NHL career this marks the very first time that Cizikas has either been fined or suspended for a dirty play, it seems reasonable that the league would weigh that in his favor.

In the grand scheme of things this suspension to Cizikas isn't likely to mean a great deal. The Islanders are all but mathematically eliminated from Stanley Cup playoff contention and the bigger story here may be the injury to Smith, who is on a playoff team.

For the official league ruling and for a full breakdown of how the Department of Player Safety reached their conclusion, in their own words, you can check out the clip below courtesy of the NHL.