Eight-Game Suspension Issued Following Dangerous Hit That Sent Player to Hospital

As we all know, hockey is a very physical sport. At times it can be quite dangerous either through neglect and carelessness, or simply through random chance and freak accidents.

This season we have seen the NHL hand out many suspensions, including a season-long ten-game penalty to Wild forward Ryan Hartman earlier this year.

Technically, Panthers star Aaron Ekblad received a longer suspension but that had nothing to do with an on-ice incident.

That being said, the NHL is far from the only league to hand out lengthy suspensions to players on a regular basis.

Today, Mountfield HK defender Martin Pláněk of the Czech Extraliga received an eight-game suspension for a hit on HC Dynamo Pardubice forward Lukáš Sedlák.

The hit came along the end boards and seemed rather inocuous at first, but as Sedlák started to fall to the ice, Pláněk followed through his upper-body, sending the forward into the ice surface head-first.

Sedlák was stretchered off the ice after the incident and was taken to a local hospital for precautionary reasons.

Luckily, he was released the following morning without any major injuries as he narrowly avoided disaster.

Pláněk should consider himself lucky the result of the play did not result in something more serious, otherwise he could have potentially faced much bigger problems than an eight-game suspension.