Report: No punishment for Brad Stuart's hit on Gabriel Landeskog

Brad Stuart's hit on the Avalanche's Gabriel Landeskog on Saturday was questionable, but the Sharks defenseman won't be facing a suspension.

By Brian Stubits

Jan 27, 2013 at 2:29 pm ET • 2 min read

San Jose Sharks defenseman Brad Stuart was under the microscope for his borderline hit on Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog on Saturday. It was debatable whether Stuart left the ice to make the hit and whether he elevated into Landeskog's head.

The result is that there won't be any supplemental discipline for Stuart. That's according to TSN's Bob McKenzie:

Will start hijacking your Twitline tomorrow. Oh, yeah, if you were wondering, Brad Stuart's hit on Gabriel Landeskog: no further action.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) January 27, 2013

The hit was immediately a question mark after the game, and naturally Stuart didn't think he was in trouble (quotes via David Pollak, Mercury News).

"Right now, no. I don't see any problem with the hit," Stuart said. "I've seen stranger things happen so I don't know what will happen, but in my opinion it was fine. You take those kinds of hits out of the game and you change the game. You're not out there trying to hurt someone. Those hits happen."

What about Landeskog, who took the hit that seemed to come awfully close to his head (or might have, it's tough to tell in the replay)? He was actually on the same page as Stuart, believe it or not.

"I thought it was a hard hit," said Landeskog, acknowledging he had not looked at a replay yet. "I think it was a clean hit or felt like a clean hit, no elbow but it was hard, I'll tell you that much. I was kind of reaching for the puck and didn't brace myself enough and stepped up. That's the way with hockey, you give some and you take some and tonight I took a pretty big one.

"I knew he was there. I didn't think he was going to come at the speed that he came and then I saw him the last second but not early enough. I felt fine. I was a little weak at first. But I got some ice in here and took care of what had to be taken care of and then I felt fine after that."

Landeskog's opinion on the hit might not have meant a whole lot to Brendan Shanahan in deciding on no punishment, but the fact that Landeskog was OK and returned to the game certainly did. Injuries are absolutely considered when Shanahan makes his decisions.

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