Anaheim's Jacques Suspended

The NHL has announced the suspension of Anaheim Ducks forward Jean-Francois Jacques. He has been suspended for the remainder of pre-season, and five regular season games for leaving the players bench on a legal line change with the sole intention of starting a fight with Vancouver forward Mike Duco on September 24th. Senior VP of player safety Brendan Shanahan has had his hands full early on with the amount of suspensions and reviews early in this off-season, but this was one of his easier calls to make.

At 16:31 of the third period, Jacques made the legal line change, and made a direct line across the ice to Vancouver’s Mike Duco where he initiated the fight.

Under the NHL rules, Rule 70.2 states in part: "A player who has entered play while play is in progress from his own players' bench … who starts an altercation may be subject to discipline in accordance with Rule 28 -- Supplementary Discipline." Jacques received a 2 minute minor, for instigating a fight, a five minute fighting major, a ten minute misconduct penalty, and an automatic game suspension for starting fight with under 5 minutes remaining.

Head coach Randy Carlyle has come under some questioning regarding his part in the incident, but thus far the supplementary discipline has landed only at Jacques’ feet, as he will miss the entire Europe trip with the team. He will forfeit $17,567.55 during his suspension under the CBA.

"It's hard to defend. You can't defend what he did," Carlyle said to the media. "He went across the ice and went after a guy, and it's kind of like you're at a loss for words when it's happening. You're shaking your head. But what can you do?"

VP of player safety and league disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan once again released a video explaining his call., as he has done for every suspension this season in an effort to get everyone on the same page with what he expects will change the game for the better.

I personally don’t like the rule that bans a player automatically for a fight at the tail-end of a game, but in this instance Jacques had no hope of getting himself out of anything.

- Kendall Grubbs