Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Brad Stuart suffers broken jaw from controversial hit by Tom Kostopoulos

bradstuartbrokenjaw

James O’Brien

The Detroit Red Wings came back from a two goal deficit to upend the Calgary Flames with a shootout victory last night, but it may have come at the cost of one of its mid-level defenseman.

In a check that’s been called a blindside hit to downright “disgraceful and unfortunate,” Flames forward Tom Kostopoulos nailed Red Wings defenseman Brad Stuart one of nowhere and apparently gave him a broken jaw.

(Kukla’s Korner has video of the hit.)

Much like Atlanta Thrashers enforcer Ben Eager’s indefensible sucker punch on Toronto Maple Leafs forward Colby Armstrong (which also happened Friday night), it’s hard to argue with the cries to suspend Kostopoulos. The hit was totally unnecessary, the puck was nowhere near Stuart and it left quite the impact on the defenseman.

Now, that’s just our opinion; what the NHL actually decides to do vs. how we think the league should discipline people is two different things. We’ll keep you up to date whether the league does nothing, just fines Kostopoulos or suspends and fines him.