Nick Ritchie facing suspension for “slashing” Shattenkirk in the face.

This may very well go down as one of the most poorly thought out suspensions of the season, if it does indeed result in a suspension.

On Friday night things got pretty heated during one of the games on the National Hockey League's schedule, the one contested between the Anaheim Ducks and the Arizona Coyotes. We've already covered one incident that occurred during that game, a beatdown from Coyotes veteran forward Jay Beagle on an unsuspecting Troy Terry, but now the National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety is taking a different incident from that game under review.

According to an official announcement from Player Safety, Coyotes forward Nick Ritchie will have a hearing on Saturday for "slashing" Ducks defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk. Technically what Ritchie did was slash Shattenkirk in the face, at least according to how the league appears to view the incident, but the reality of what happened here is considerably more mild than what the wording would suggest.

After delivering a check to Shattenkirk along the boards, it would seem that Ritchie decided to add insult to injury by rubbing things in while right in Shattenkirk's face, literally. After seperating from the hit, Ritchie raised his stick blade up to Shattenkirk's cheek and made a motion that I would describe almost as a slap delivered with the stick of a hockey blade. As you can see from the short replay of the incident, it did not appear to be a particularly forceful blow from Ritchie.

That being said I can see why the NHL doesn't want players using their sticks in such a manner, considering how easily it could lead to injury, and it seems Ritchie's moment of indiscretion could end up costing him far more than it was worth. If he is indeed on the receiving end of a suspension from George Paros and company at the NHL, I suspect that it will be an extremely mild one given the circumstances I have just laid out for you.

Then again, it is the NHL's Department of Player Safety so who knows.