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NHL delays meeting with Krys Barch

Brad Richards, Krys Barch

New York Rangers center Brad Richards (19) and Florida Panthers right wing Krys Barch (21) battle for the puck during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Friday, Dec. 30, 2011, in Sunrise, Fla. The Rangers won 4-1. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

AP

Earlier this afternoon, it looked like Krys Barch was primed for a meeting with the NHL at 3 p.m. ET. It turns out that won’t be the case; TSN’s Darren Dreger reports that the meeting has been delayed - possibly until Wednesday.

My guess is that two factors delayed this process: 1) the sensitive nature of the situation, as Barch allegedly uttered a racial slur toward P.K. Subban and 2) Barch’s Florida Panthers don’t play until Thursday. Even so, Dreger probably said it best in the end of his Tweet: “Strange process on this one.”

The league has a history of suspending players for racially charged comments, but it has been quite some time since that last happened. Even so, these can certainly be thornier subjects than controversial hits. One potential issue is that there might not be a lot of concrete “evidence” that something specific was said. (It’s not as if this is as simple as determining whether a player delivers a head shot, after all.)

Either way, Colin Campbell and the NHL will have to deal with this soon, as uncomfortable and difficult as this situation seems to be.