Raffi Torres has been sitting quietly in the press box since delivering his brutal shot to Marian Hossa in the first round, but there’s a very outside chance his days of waiting may come to an end soon.
According to Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet, Torres’ appeal of his 25-game suspension will be heard on Thursday. The catch with an appeal, however, is he won’t be sitting down with Brendan Shanahan to discuss it but with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman instead. The chances of seeing Bettman go against his guy Shanahan and reduce Torres’ suspension would appear to be minimal.
Torres’ suspension for his late, head-targeting hit is one of the longest in NHL history and one that was deemed to have three separate penalties occur on the same play. No penalty was called during the game.