Raffi Torres
said his piece to the NHL on Friday. But he will have to wait until Saturday to hear what the league says about that.
The abrasive Coyotes winger, indefinitely suspended for his Game 3 hit on the Blackhawks’
Marian Hossa,
had his disciplinary hearing in New York — and the league followed with official word that any further sanctions would not be announced until Saturday.
“I really can’t talk about it right now,” Torres told Reuters as he left NHL offices.
Replays showed Torres left his skates and delivered a shoulder-to-head blow to Hossa in the first period of Game 3, a shot that resulted in Hossa being carried off the ice on a stretcher and taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
The Hawks forward didn’t travel to Arizona for Game 5 and Hawks coach
Joel Quenneville
deemed his condition “the same.”
“I don’t like seeing Hossa down on the ground and not with us,” Hawks defenseman
Duncan Keith
said Friday. “For the league, all those suspensions and plays are tough jobs for them to decide on the punishment. I’ve always respected what they’ve done and we have confidence they’ll do a good job.”
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Defending Corey:
Quenneville didn’t name a starting goaltender Friday, leaving open the possibility that backup
Ray Emery
will get the call after
Corey Crawford
yielded goals in two consecutive overtimes.
Whatever the decision, captain
Jonathan Toews
defended Crawford.
“We’ve seen some great hockey from Corey over this series,” Toews said. “He’s one of those guys, he’s very hard on himself. Goaltending is that position that seems to take the most responsibility, especially in losing efforts.
“But, really, what you don’t notice are those little things he does every play, every shift and those stops he’s making to keep us in these tight games. Maybe he deserves a little bit more credit for that. We’re standing behind him. He has worked as hard if not harder than anybody in this series and he deserves our full support.”
Fight club:
Coyotes tough guy
Paul Bissonnette
earned a game misconduct for not having his sweater strapped down during a Game 4 fight with the Hawks’
Brandon Bollig
. Generally, an unsecured uniform means you’re looking to toss paws.
“My original thought was, there’s no way he didn’t have it tied down, it must have ripped,” Coyotes coach
Dave Tippett
said Friday. “And that wasn’t the case. I’ll just leave it at that.”
Injury update:
Coyotes forwards
Martin Hanzal
and
Lauri Korpikoski
have missed the last two games and were “going to see some people (Friday) afternoon,” Tippett said. Both will be evaluated further Saturday.