Sucker punch draws suspension in National Women’s Hockey League – CBSSports.com

There has been a series of firsts this week for the fledgling National Women’s Hockey League, the first paid women’s professional league, this week. They nabbed their first major corporate sponsor, which was a huge moment in the league’s young history, and now they’ve doled out their first suspension for a doozy of an infraction.

The league announced Thursday that it has suspended Connecticut Whale defenseman Molly Engstrom one game after she sucker-punched Buffalo Beauts forward and Team USA captain Meghan Duggan Sunday. Engstrom was tossed from the game in which she committed the infraction, but the league felt it needed to send a stronger message.

Similar to how the NHL operates, the NWHL released a video explaining the suspension and showed in great detail the somewhat shocking sucker punch thrown by Engstrom, which floored Duggan and caused injury, according to the league.

Engstrom, a U.S. Olympian who came out of retirement to join the NWHL, first cross-checked Duggan in the back behind the play. There was some pushing and shoving and then Engstrom delivered a hard left hook to Duggan’s jaw, leaving the Beauts forward laid out on the ice.

A one-game suspension may seem a bit light here, but you also have to consider that each team only plays 18 games in their season in the NWHL. So it’s like the equivalent of a four or five gamer in an 82-game NHL season.

Also, you might have noticed one of the angles in the video looks like it’s from a security camera. That’s because it is. The NWHL, for many of its games, will be limited in the camera angles available to them. It’s not like an NHL broadcast with seemingly every angle of every play. Massachusetts-based NESN broadcasts select games throughout the year that would give them a few more angles, but since the Boston Pride wasn’t playing in this game, that wasn’t an option. So the league pulled some video from the security cam in addition to what was already available to them.

It’s a unique situation for the league to be in, but they showed thoroughness in the assessment of the infraction. According to a NWHL release, the league also consulted NHL Director of Player Safety Patrick Burke to be involved in their disciplinary hearings. He, along with NWHL commissioner Dani Rylan, NWHL director Erika Lawler and representatives from each team not involved in the game were all part of the hearing and decision-making process for suspensions.

The NWHL has done a great job at the start of their inaugural season building an audience and maximizing their exposure. Having to suspend a player for a pretty vicious sucker punch isn’t exactly good publicity for the league. They didn’t have to share the video of Engstrom’s infraction, either, but the NWHL didn’t hide from it. Holding players accountable and being transparent in their discipline is a sign of an organization that’s trying to do things the right way and also do right by its players, which is great to see.

The NWHL wants to be treated like a major pro league, so they’re trying to run things like a major pro league. This suspension is yet another example of that. How they’re handling themselves, especially when the publicity might not paint the rosiest picture, is a sign of an organization that’s headed in the right direction.