IIHF announces a suspension for Team Russia at the World Juniors.

The International Ice Hockey Federation has issued yet another suspension and this time it will be Team Russia that loses one of its players,

According to an official announcement via the IIHF's official website, Russian forward Nikita Rtishev has been suspended for one game due to a headbutt he delivered during Russia's match against the United States of America over the weekend. The move comes off the heels of a highly controversial suspension handed down to Canadian forward Joe Veleno, one that was also for a headbutt. In Veleno's case the headbutt was far less severe so it seems fair to suggest that the IIHF had no choice but to act on the Rtishev incident. 

First, here is the official ruling from the IIHF:

The violation occurred at the end of the 2nd period of Russia’s game against the Unites States. Namely, right after the end of the second period, USA forward Oliver Wahlstrom and Russian forward Maxim Sorkin started to push each other around. Rtishev saw both players battling and skates towards them. He got involved by getting in between the players and grabbed Wahlstrom’s left shoulder. He then pushed Wahlstrom up against the boards while the officials tried to separate them. The officials managed to separate both players for a short while. However, both players approached each other again and both players’ heads ended up on eye-level and close to one another. Rtishev then made contact by moving his head forward and towards Wahlstrom’s head. This caused Wahlstrom’s helmet to be lifted up. Subsequently, the officials separated both players.  

Based on all facts ascertained, the Disciplinary Panel determined that Rtishev’s conduct after the conclusion of the second period was overly aggressive and irresponsible. It was clear that Rtishev intentionally directed his head towards Wahlstrom to make contact with his head. The fact that Rtishev’s actions did not directly endanger the physical integrity of Wahlstrom, does not prevent the application of Official Playing Rule 142 (Head-Butting) in this respect. Namely, Rtishev’s action of bringing his head forward and towards Wahlstrom fulfills the criteria of a Head-Butt as set out under Official Playing Rule 142 (Head-Butting), and warrants a one-game suspension. 

Now this was by no means the most aggressive headbutt you will ever see and in fact I think you would be hard pressed to even call it a dangerous play. Here is a video replay of the incident in question:

As I stated earlier however Canadian forward Joe Veleno was suspended earlier in the tournament for a similar infraction, although there was even less force in the Veleno incident. It seems that anything even remotely resembling a headbutt will now lead to an automatic suspension for players at the World Juniors, and there's no doubt now that the players have been put on notice.