More serious punishment coming to Denyskin for racist gesture that barely got reprimanded!

This is more and more like I like it. Let’s get some context: the incident occurred back on September 26th during a game between HC Donbass, whom Jalen Smereck plays for, and HC Kremenchuk in the Ukrainian Hockey League. Between whistles, Smereck and Andriy Denyskin appeared to share words when Denyskin went way, way, waaaay over the line by miming peeling a banana and eating it. The intent, I suppose, was to compare the dark skinned Smereck to an ape, which is unacceptable.

This prompted Smereck, a player who spent time in the Arizona Coyotes organization to take a personal leave of absence from his team and from professional hockey in general as he awaited Denyskin to be punished.

“I will not play another game in the [Ukrainian Hockey League] until Andrey Denyskin is suspended and removed from the league. Thank you.”

The verdict from the Ukrainian Hockey League came a few days later and it’s absolutely pathetic. Denyskin was suspended three games + 10 games ( however, he can come back after 3 suspended games if he pays a fine of ₴50 000, which equals around 1883 US$.). The decision was made by the Disciplinary Committee of the Ice Hockey Federation of Ukraine.

Smereck later added his “heart dropped” when he learned of how light Deniskin’s discipline was. They got so much heat for this stupid punishment that was not enough for Denyskin’s actions.

There is some light however as Darren Dreger revealed on Thursday night’s Insider Trading on TSN that the IIHF is still pondering something longer. Here is how he explained it:

“They’re firstly reviewing a discipline case that will see Denyskin parked on the side for international events, for an undetermined length of time, that could be imposed by the IIHF. But the IIHF is also working under a recommendation that strongly encourages all federations, under the guidance of the IIHF, to provide a much higher maximum punishment. So, more than the 13 games the Ukraine federation delivered to Andrei Denyskin.”

There has to be more done to punish Denyskin and anyone who thinks about pulling such disgusting and unacceptable moves on the ice (or anywhere for that matter). Hockey is for all.