Wild player Ryan Hartman given automatic suspension for throwing stick

Moments ago, the NHL announced the decision to assess Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman an automatic suspension of three games for throwing his stick at a referee.

During a game Saturday night, the referees missed a high sticking call on Hartman in front of the net while battling for a puck. Hartman was irate and unable to stop himself from going after the referees, and then as the game was concluding with a Vegas win, Hartman threw his stick in the direction of the referee. It was a truly wild sight to see.

According to Michael Russo of the Athletic yesterday, the NHL was actually debating bypassing the automatic suspension and instead assessing Hartman a fine, because the incident wasn't overly egregious as much as it was unsportsmanlike. The NHL decided to stick to their rules, and enforced the automatic suspension designed for specific situations like this.



It's an extremely rare scenario to see, both a player lose his cool to such an extreme degree and for the NHL to enforce an automatic suspension. In reality, the high stick Hartman took in the dying seconds of the game was a much more severe infraction, but players must control themselves and their sticks at all times, and any actions directed towards referees crosses a line. For these reasons, the NHL made the right decision to use the automatic suspension on Hartman.

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