During last night's 2-1 loss to the Blues, Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall was hit from behind by the Blues' Chris Stewart, resulting in a 5 minute checking from behind penalty and game misconduct.
A lot of us surmised that Mr Stewart would be feeling the wrath of the Shanahammer, and today the NHL announced that Stewart was suspended for 3 games without pay for the hit. Here's the Shanavideo (I'm putting "Shana" in front of everything now, so Shanadeal with it):
There's not a whole lot to say about this hit, nor should there be much outrage over the suspension itself. Stewart clearly hit Kronwall from behind about 3-4 feet away from the boards, and extended his arms to follow through on the check to a player who was not in a position to defend himself. Personally, I figured it would be 2 games, but 3 isn't too severe. Stewart's not normally a guy I'd consider "dirty", and I still don't. I think he just made a dumb play, and he'll serve his punishment and that will be that. The key in all of this is that Kronwall didn't sustain an injury that would keep him out of the lineup for an extended period of time.