Dan Carcillo is at it again, and he may be looking at the longest stretch of league-mandated time off in his controversy-filled career.
The Blackhawks forward has been suspended indefinitely for his hit from behind/boarding on Edmonton's Tom Gilbert on Monday night in Chicago, the NHL announced Tuesday.
In addition to an indefinite suspension, the second-period hit earned Carcillo a game misconduct and a five-minute boarding major. Adding injury to an insulting play (and perhaps a little bit of karma), Carcillo also suffered a left knee injury while issuing the hit. The Oilers scored two goals on the power play, and they ended up coming away with a 4-3 win in Chicago.
That's not enough punishment for the league, though, as Carcillo may be looking at a lengthy suspension. The longtime Philadelphia Flyer has a history of suspensions, including a two-game ban already this season for a hit from behind on Carolina's Joni Pitkanen. Carcillo was also suspended for the first two games of the 2011-12 season for an incident stemming from Philadelphia's Game 4 loss to the Bruins in last year's playoffs.
Those all seem relatively tame when compared to a four-game suspension given to Carcillo in 2009 for a sucker punch to the face of Washington's Matt Bradley.
NHL senior vice president of player safety Brendan Shanahan has made it no secret that he takes into account a player's history when handing out suspensions, so it's pretty safe to assume that Carcillo could be missing a good chunk of games — and money — for his latest hit.
See the hit below.
