In late July, the International Ice Hockey Federation Disciplinary Committee ruled that Vancouver Canucks' defenseman Alexander Edler was to serve a suspension of four games in international play stemming from a nasty hit he laid on Canada's Eric Staal in last year's World Championships that left him sprawled on the ice and earned Edler an ejection from the contest.
The knee-on-knee collision that left Staal nursing a a third-degree sprain of the right medial collateral ligament on a play the IIHF later ruled was reckless and dangerous. Edler was suspended for the remainder of the tournament.
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| Staal on the ice after the hit from Edler - Jonathan Nackstrand/Getty Images |
Even though the injury didn't require surgery, Staal, ended up on the rehab trail for months, and while he considers the hit dirty, he holds no ill will toward Edler...
...but Staal isn't the governing body of international ice hockey, who slapped the defenseman with the ban that would carry over to the Olympics, if he qualified for the Swedish team - which he did, so now Edler missed the Swede's first match of the Olympic tournament against the Czech Republic and now must sit for the next game against Switzerland before being reinstated.
Edler, who has been involved in more than a few cheap shots since - including a head shot on San Jose rookie Toma Hertl never did try to contact Staal to make nice, but he reportedly did speak with Staal's teammate Dan Hamhuis immediately after that game in May and told him that the hit was unintentional.
“He told Dan it wasn’t his intention to hit me like that,” Staal said months later, then adding, “That’s fine.”
Maybe so for the "forgive and forget" style of Eric Staal, but not fine for anyone else - including the guys in charge of punishment for such acts.
http://www.sportsinjuryalert.com/2014/02/swedens-edler-to-serve-one-more-game-on.html#.Uv13BrQcq58
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