Report: Flyers forward becomes first to be suspended in the postseason.

The Philadelphia Flyers already find themselves in an extremely difficult position down three games to none in their first round series against the Washington Capitals, and now they will be down a man.

The National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety held a hearing today for Flyer's forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare for his illegal hit to the back of Washington Capitals defenseman Dmitry Orlov. The hit came with just 7 minutes left on the clock in the third period of Game 3, and considering the optics of the hit many suspected a suspension was coming.

While Bellemare has in fact been suspended, he will only receive one game, and while that may be the final game of the Flyers' postseason, he will probably consider himself lucky for escaping with just that relatively lenient punishment. It's worth noting however that the NHL has always viewed postseason games as more valuable than their regular season counterparts, and it's probably safe to assume this would have been two or potentially even three games in the regular season.

For a full break down of how the NHL ruled on this hit, you can view the video below.

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