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

Shanahan on suspensions: playoff games don’t equal regular-season games

2011 Hockey Hall Of Fame Induction

TORONTO, ON - NOVEMBER 14: Brendan Shanahan speaks with the media prior to the 2011 Hockey Hall of Fame Induction ceremony at the Hockey Hall Of Fame on November 14, 2011 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Bruce Bennett

A little something to stick in your back pocket – NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan is on the record that a one-game suspension in the playoffs is more significant than a one-game suspension in the regular season.

In fact, according to Shanahan, it’s a LOT more significant.

“I can attest to this as a player, if you ask me if I’d rather have a four-game suspension in November than a one-game suspension in the playoffs, I’d take the four-game suspension in November,” Shanahan told ESPN’s Craig Custance. “If you think about it, that one game in the finals is the equivalent of a 12-game suspension. … I don’t feel we’re in the punishment business, we’re in the changing player behavior business. You do that by getting a player’s attention.”

So by Shanahan’s math, Vancouver defenseman Aaron Rome was suspended 48 regular-season games for his late hit on Boston’s Nathan Horton in last year’s finals.