Report: Early rumblings of another suspension on the horizon.

It appears that the National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety is set to hand down yet another suspension as the league continues to move towards banning head contact in all but name. 

According to a report from TSN insider Darren Dreger there is now an expectation that 22 year old Winnipeg Jets forward Brendan Lemieux will face a disciplinary hearing following the hit he delivered to Florida Panthers star Vincent Trocheck. The hit took place on Friday while the two organizations were facing off at the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki Finaland as part of the National Hockey League's effort to continue to grow their brand around the world. The match up proved to be very exciting for the fans in attendance however things got ugly with just a little over 5 minutes left in the 2nd period. 

The game was all tied up at 2 - 2 when Trocheck tried to lead the rush into the Winnipeg Jets zone, only to be clobbered by a big hit from Lemieux as he fed the pass to a teammate streaking across the blue line. The hit quite clearly caught Trocheck up high and the veteran forward appeared to do his best to embellish the blow to the head as much as possible. That's not to say that Trocheck was faking in any way, the Panthers forward's bloody mouth was more than enough to prove that he had been caught up high, but his reaction to the hit and the way he fell to the ice did seem a little overly dramatic in my estimation.

That being said though the NHL has really been cracking down on any kind of head contact as of late and from my perspective it seems like this is their way of not so subtlety moving towards a 100% ban on head contract of any type out on the ice. Lemieux was ejected for the hit so he has in theory already received a one game suspension for his antics, but it now sounds like he may get some extra discipline for the blow to the head. Jets' fans likely won't be too disappointed however as a segment of the fan base has felt that Lemieux should have already been sent down to the American Hockey League, something that now seems quite likely given the looming suspension.

[pub]