Carolina’s Walker won’t miss Game 6
The Carolina Hurricanes caught a big break (pardon the pun) on Monday when the NHL fined forward Scott Walker but did not suspend him for throwing a punch that may have broken a bone in Boston Bruins defenseman Aaron Ward’s face.
Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford told reporters that the automatic suspension given to Walker was rescinded during a hearing with league disciplinarian Colin Campbell. It was ruled the hit was not a “sucker punch.”
Walker punched Ward in the face, drawing an instigator penalty to go with a fighting major and a 10-minute misconduct with 2:47 remaining in the Bruins’ 4-0 win on Sunday. Ward still had his gloves on when he got hit.
NHL Rule 47.22 states that “a player deemed to be the instigator of an altercation in the final five (5) minutes of regulation time or at anytime in overtime . . . shall be suspended for one game, pending review of the incident.”
“Based on what was said on the ice as I was dropping my gloves, it was my understanding that I was engaged in an altercation,” Walker said in a statement issued by the team.
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Bruins coach Claude Julien didn’t hide his feelings on the subject: “He sucker-punched him once coming into the scrum when [Ward] was involved with another player. He dropped his gloves and sucker-punched him. I don’t care what people say about Ward should have protected himself. He had no intentions of getting involved. We asked our guys to stay composed and not fall into that trap. He did just that. A guy with Walker’s experience should know better than to sucker-punch a guy.”
There is no definitive word on Ward’s injury, and NHL teams treat injuries like military secrets when it comes to the postseason. But he will travel to Raleigh for Game 6, and the Boston media expects Ward to play.
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