Rangers forward Brandon Prust will miss Game 4 of the Eastern Conference final on Monday as he has been suspended for one game by NHL's head disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan and his office on Sunday evening. The NHL made the announcement on its network.
Prust was following Devils forward Anton Volchenkov into the side boards and got his elbow elevated, driving it into the back of Volchenkov's head. The hit looked bad, and it was enough to give Prust the one-game boot.
As Shanahan explains, the elbow was a reckless play. Despite the hit only meeting one of the three main items that Shanny considers for his bans (just the penalty itself), Prust gets the ban. Why? Because of the flared elbow. Shanahan notes that he flares the elbow once he realize he isn't going to make contact with Volchenkov, who is attempting to evade the hit.
Of course, Prust had his hearing and of course took the opportunity to defend his actions. He gave the media some insight on the meeting with Shanahan on Sunday.
"I think I was able to talk quite a bit and just explain kind of where I was coming from on the play and just trying to get in a check before it was the end of a shift, just skating over for routine check, I just wanted to rub him out and get off the ice," Prust explained.
"And he just kind of -- he bailed out of it and turned and kind of went rolling. And it's just kind of a reaction when you're off balance, your arms go up, I didn't want to go do a faceplant in the boards. It's just kind of a reaction. I had no intent to hit him in the head. There was nothing vicious about it."
Of course his coach John Tortorella didn't think that Prust deserved to get suspended for the hit. He took to the defense of his player on Sunday at an unusually chatty press conference.
"Prust has played probably 300-plus games without any hearing, anything going on with him," Tortorella pointed out. "He's probably one of the most honest players. I look at Zubrus' elbow to Stralman. I look at Parise launching himself at Del Zotto. Maybe if our players stayed down on the ice, we'll get something."
So what was Tortorella thinking about his Game 4 lineup before the suspension was announced?
"I don't know what I'm going to with the lineup," he said. "I don't think he should be suspended. So I really haven't gone that far, because I don't think he should be."
He can now deal in that reality and prepare for Monday's game without Prust.
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