David Perron breaks silence after his “excessive” suspension

The Detroit Red Wings welcome back forward David Perron into the lineup tonight after he served a hefty six-game suspension for his cross check to the head of Ottawa Senators forward Artem Zub, whom he mistakenly believed was responsible for injuring Dylan Larkin on December 9. 

And for the first time, he's telling his side of the story as to what transpired on the ice. Understandably so, for a veteran player who has never once been suspended in over 1,000 games of NHL experience, being banned for six games felt "pretty excessive". 

"I'm just coming in there and trying to stick up for Dylan," Perron said. "You see him, kind of on my second look there, you see him motionless, not moving at all there. Definitely not easy for me to go through that, to turn around and see our captain down on the ice."

"You're trying to respond to these types of incidents," Perron said. "Obviously, I got the guy a little high. I understand that there was some discipline that needed to be done there. It just felt like on my side, it was pretty excessive for the comparables, the history, my career —  a lot of things really."

Perron concedes that being punished for the cross check was fair, but that the length of the suspension - especially compared to other similar incidents that have taken place around the NHL - was too long. 

"I would not have just randomly jumped someone," Perron said. "When you see me looking back the second time around, he's kind of got one knee down, he's between Larks, on top of Larks, kind of. Honestly, usually when these scrums when they happen, it's almost like it's a five-on-five thing. It happens really quickly in your head and you're trying to respond accordingly and the right away.

"It didn't turn out too good. I could understand something needed to happen there, but it just felt like six (games) was way too many."

Considering that the Red Wings won only a single game during Perron's absence, his return to the lineup tonight will be a welcome sight.

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