Player Safety suspends John Beecher for sucker punch on Michael McCarron.

The Calgary Flames will have to replace forward John Beecher in the short term.

On Sunday, the National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety announced that it would be suspending Beecher for one game following a hearing. Beecher was suspended under the roughing rule but was suspended for what was unquestionably a sucker punch delivered to Nashville Predators forward Michael McCarron on Saturday.

The incident involving Beecher occured in the opening period of Saturday's game between the Predators and Flames, with just over 6 minutes remaining in the period. After a heated scrum in front of the Flames bench, McCarron would drop his gloves and begin peppering Beecher with punches after he was approached by the Flames forward. Beecher understandably took exception to eating several punches for free and decided to get his revenge in the form of a vicious right hand that came after the two men had already been separated by the NHL officials on the ice. McCarron never saw the punch coming and appeared to be rocked by what was a bare knuckle punch right to the chin.

McCarron would remain down on the ice for several moments, clutching at his head, all of which made the punch from Beecher look that much more malicious.

Here's the replay of the incident:

You can hear the NHL's full ruling in the video below: