NHL disagrees with Blackhawks' Carcillo, suspends him

On Saturday morning, Daniel Carcillo called his cross-check on Winnipeg's Mathieu Perrault the previous night "kind of a hockey play."

On Monday, the NHL Department of Player Safety said it absolutely was not a hockey play, suspending the veteran forward six games for his actions.

The suspension - Carcillo's ninth in 10 years - is retroactive to Sunday's game, meaning he has five more to serve.

In explaining the reasoning for Carcillo's suspension, the league cited the fact that it wasn't a hockey play, that it happened to an unsuspecting player and caused an injury, and, "of heightened significance in this case, Carcillo has been suspended or fined 11 times in nine years."

Carcillo's suspension capped a weekend the Blackhawks would like to forget, one that included a pair of home losses to division foes that left the Hawks in a third-place tie in the Central and wondering what the heck is going on.

Things have gotten so bumpy that the Hawks, who have dropped six of their last 11 games, held a rare team meeting Monday to discuss things.

"Everybody knows that we haven't been playing like we should," said goalie Antti Raanta, who will start Tuesday night against Arizona. "Of course there were good things Sunday, but it's always tougher when you have to come back from a few goals.

"Hopefully tomorrow is a new day for us and everyone's feeling better after today."

In addition to the coaches, Hawks players also spoke up at the Monday's meeting.

"Leadership stepped up, and we've got to expect teams wanting to beat us," said Andrew Shaw, who has been struggling of late. "We're a good team and we have a lot of great things going for us, but we haven't been playing our best hockey the past few games.

"We've got to come out there the rest of the year and push to make the playoffs."

Raanta expects the impact from the meeting to be immediate. "I think tomorrow you're going to see a little bit different Blackhawks team," he said. "Everybody's hungry."

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