Winnipeg's Logan Stanley will be disciplined for sucker punching Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk

Logan Stanley will pay the price for his gutless sucker punch to the head of Ottawa Senators’ captain Brady Tkachuk.

The National Hockey League’s department of player safety announced on Sunday morning that the Winnipeg Jets’ defenceman will have a hearing for an incident with Tkachuk during Ottawa’s 4-2 victory over Winnipeg on Saturday night at the Canadian Tire Centre.

Since Stanley wasn’t offered an in-person hearing, his suspension will be five games or fewer. He has no suspension history, so he might get away with a fine, but usually, when there is a hearing, that means the player will get at least some kind of suspension.

Tkachuk wasn’t the least bit pleased with the situation with Stanley late in the second period.

He can’t fight because he’s still recovering from a right thumb injury that required surgery, but he still got in a wrestling match with Stanley near the Ottawa bench.

Tkachuk made it clear he couldn’t fight, but Stanley gave him a sucker punch to the head. Tkachuk wasn’t paying attention because one of the linemen had stepped in, trying to break the two up.

Somehow, Tkachuk was assessed a 10-minute misconduct, while Stanley only received two minor penalties.

Coach Travis Green wasn’t pleased.

“I will probably choose my words wisely,” Green said. ‘If the refs had to do it again and call it again, they’d probably make a different call. You never like to see a guy get suckered in the face

“It’s unfortunate, we’re lucky he came back. He’s an all-star player. I’m sure their team wouldn’t be happy if (Kyle) Connor got suckered in the face and there was just a two-minute minor for roughing.”

Hockey Night in Canada’s Kevin Bieksa, a former NHL player, didn’t like Stanley’s actions one bit.

“I like Logan Stanley. He has to play on the edge, and he clearly wants this fight with Brady Tkachuk,” Bieksa told viewers on Saturday night. “It’s a great trade-off for him. I think he regrets this. I could never do this in my career. I could never punch a guy who didn’t have his gloves off yet.

“Clearly, Brady is not looking. He’s got a taped-up hand that he’s trying to show the bench, which means by rule he can’t fight.”

More later …

bgarrioch@postmedia.com

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