| | NEW YORK -- Officials may not have seen it, but the
league did. On Friday, Tampa Bay goaltender Dan Cloutier was
suspended four games without pay for kicking another player.
The NHL needed little time to hand down the ban, which came as a
result of Cloutier kicking New York Islanders rookie forward Tim
Connolly in the head during Tampa Bay's 4-2 victory on Thursday.
Cloutier was not penalized for his act, which came after
Connolly crashed into him. While Robert Petrovicky opened the
scoring at the other end, Cloutier responded with a kick to the
head and knee to the back.
"Even though no injury was sustained by the Islander player, we
view Mr. Cloutier's action as extremely serious and dangerous,"
said NHL director of hockey operations Colin Campbell.
Under terms of the collective bargaining agreement, Cloutier
will lose $11,187.50 of his $600,000 salary. He is eligible to
return to the lineup Jan. 24 at Washington.
Islanders coach Butch Goring screamed at referees Greg Kimmerly
and Mark Faucette after the play.
"Any time you see a goaltender kick a player in the head, you'd
like to hope someone sees it because that's a pretty serious
attempt to injure someone," Goring said.
Cloutier's first-period antics sparked an ugly game between two
of the league's worst teams. The Lightning snapped a 12-game
winless drought and left the Islanders with an NHL-low 26
points.
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