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Pierre-Marc Bouchard files appeal with NHL over iffy suspension

Pierre-Marc Bouchard isn’t pleased with his suspension and he’s going to fight the league over it. Bouchard has filed an appeal over his two-game ban for his high-sticking incident Saturday night against Columbus. Bouchard will meet with Commissioner Gary Bettman today to see if his ban is upheld.

What will help make this meeting between Bouchard and the NHL a bit more fun is how Bouchard’s agent, Allan Walsh, trashed the NHL’s means of meting out punishment referring to it as a “kangaroo court” and called the two-game suspension of his client, “a shameful farce for the league.” That meeting could get a little bit awkward. “Oh yeah, about all that stuff I was saying... Yeah, don’t hold that against my client, OK?”

The NHL’s process for handling appeals is different than Major League Baseball’s in that the appeals happen before the player plays another game instead of dragging things out allowing the player to continue playing until their meeting is heard. We’ve seen this happen before when Joe Thornton challenged his two-game suspension which was upheld for hitting David Perron with a wicked blow that ended up knocking Perron out for the season with a concussion. Perron has yet to return to action.