Leipsic was only given a 2 minute penalty for Charging on the play as he appeared to take a run at Vickerman. Vickerman did a great job of trying to avoid the traumatic hit to his head and took it mostly on the shoulder, but the WHL obviously did not like his intention.
I think that the WHL is only giving the 3 game suspension because of Leipsic's history of border-line hits. They are obviously trying to send a message to all players around the league by levelling such a heavy suspension on one of their star players.
Leipsic was trying to energize his team that, at the time, had fallen behind 5-1 and was showing a real lack of energy. As was the case among most of the Hawk's players Tuesday night, he was trying to do too much on his own and stopped playing a smart, team oriented game.
Leipsic should be back for next Saturday's second tilt in 2 nights up in Kelowna.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that he got suspended for 1 game more than Zach Pochiro after elbowing Haar in the head while he was defenseless on his knees...
ReplyDeleteYeah does not make a lot of sense. The Pochiro elbow to Haar's head looked a lot more nefarious, especially considering it came after the whistle.
DeleteI guess we know the league still sees a big target on our backs. It is what it is, I guess.
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