Brad Jones, IHL Vice President of Hockey Operations, had this to say about Brad MacMillan's five-game suspenion:
"Brad is not a dirty player, but the fact of the matter is it was a clear blow to the head delivered with some force. It was the severity of the impact. It wasn't a glancing blow where the elbow hit the shoulder and then moved up. It was clear the elbow was raised and it clearly got him square.
"Another thing was that when the hit was being delivered, a lot of players will lower their stick to drop their shoulder and deliver the blow, but he drops his stick to get his elbow up and hits him in the head. If he had hit him with his shoulder, we'd have no issue, but he got him with the elbow and there is obvious follow through. It was one of those hits that I feel we have to protect the players from.
"Do I feel he intended to elbow him in the head? No, but he did hit him in the head, and I didn't feel it was necessary."
As for the length of the suspension, Jones said he felt five games was justified after earlier this year he gave out three-game suspensions to a player who used an incidental head butt in a fight and to another player for a stick infraction. Jones said it was also comparable to suspensions this year in the NHL for similar fouls.
MacMillan will have to miss the Komets' next five games.
