According to a few Boston Bruins hockey blogs and news sources Boston Bruin's defenseman Aaron Ward will play in game six against the Carolina Hurricanes. Colin Campbell must have went to the same school as Greg Shepherd and Bruce McLeod because they never seem to rule with an consistency in any of their rulings. If this had been Milan Lucic and he had sucker punched Eric Staal or Cindy Crosby there would have been a long suspension.
Report: Ward will play in Game 6
James Murphy --- May 11, 2009
Thankfully for the Boston Bruins, defenseman Aaron Ward is OK and will play in game 6.
TSN and NBC analyst Pierre McGuire reported on “Melnick In the Afternoon” on the Team 990 in Montreal on Monday that Ward’s injury is not “as serious as they thought” and that he will be ready to go for Game 6.
It is unknown if the Bruins will still call up another defenseman from Providence as insurance.
The NHL rescinded the automatic suspension that Scott Walker received as a result of the instigator penalty assessed to him with 2:47 remaining in the third period of Sunday’s game.
“We respectfully disagree with the NHL’s ruling to rescind the automatic suspension to Scott Walker, but we will abide by the league’s ruling,” Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli said in a statement.
While the Bruins took the high road in regard to the NHL’s decision, they surely aren’t happy about what transpired.
“I don’t care what people say [that] Ward should’ve protected himself,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “He had no intention of getting involved. We asked our guys to stay composed and not fall into that trap, and he just did that. A guy with Walker’s experience should know better than to sucker punch a guy, and again, this is an area that I don’t deal with. I deal with my team and let other people deal with the situation.”
NHL head disciplinarian Colin Campbell deemed Walker’s actions did not warrant the mandatory one-game suspension, and Walker and the Hurricanes agreed with Campbell.
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