Rasmus Ristolainen won’t be fighting his three-game suspension.
While taking on Pittsburgh Tuesday, Ristolainen anticipated the puck coming out of the Penguins’ zone and being received by forward Jake Guentzel. However, the puck was stopped before it hit the blue line and when Ristolainen stepped up to hit Guentzel, he clobbered the unsuspecting forward without the puck anywhere in the vicinity.
See the play at the top of this post.
Speaking to the media on Thursday morning, Ristolainen more or less agreed with the call of a five-minute major and game misconduct made by the referee.
“I tried to hit him. Obviously he didn’t get the puck so that’s unfortunate and too bad he got injured,” Ristolainen said to Amy Moritz of the Buffalo News.
“At the moment, I didn’t expect to get thrown out of the game, but later on he obviously didn’t have the puck. He didn’t get it. Our player broke the play and he got injured. So, I don’t know what are the rules but it probably was the right call. I’m not aware of the rules.”
Guentzel had trouble getting back on his feet under his own power and it was announced after the game that he had sustained a concussion.
“I didn’t take any strides,” Ristolainen said. “I tried to give a little bit of time to be aware and when I was getting my eyes toward him I tried to look the puck, I tried to find the puck. It never got to him. I didn’t see that. So it’s like a half a second there. Tough to react.”
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