Milan’s Tomas Zaborsky is the unlucky winner of the season’s first suspension, issued today by Sepp Blatter, EURO’s director of player safety and discipline.
Tomas Zaborsky has been suspended for 2 games after a hit on his former Olympic teammate, Marcel Hossa.
A minute into his first shift in Milan’s 5-2 loss in Prague on Friday, Zaborsky slammed Marcel Hossa into the boards as both were pursuing a puck from opposite directions. Hossa went head-first into the boards and his right leg seemed to get caught in Zaborsky’s legs as both fell to the ice. The 29-year-old Hossa, who has scored 7 points in 19 games for the Sparta team, left the game and did not return. He is listed as day-to-day with a groin-area injury. Zaborsky, 23, was given a major penalty for checking from behind and a match penalty with referee Rolf Schwarz ejecting him from the game.
The hit and injury raised the ire of Sparta’s players and their fans, who starting throwing things at the Milan bench for a short time before order was restored. Marcus Kruger, who centers Zaborsky’s line, took a Styrofoam® container of beef goulash in the head, but suffered no injuries other than a stain on his sweater. Although Prague failed to score while the major penalty was being served, they definitely turned up the tempo of the scoreless game. Robin Grossman, a slight, teen-age defenseman who is playing in his first season in the EURO, apparently decided neutrality wasn’t for every Swiss citizen. Shortly after the major penalty was over, he took an unnecessary roughness penalty with a hand to the face of Tyler Johnson in front of the Prague net and later, he got into a scrap with Luca Sbisa of the Guerriero.
Asked if Zaborsky, whose highest season penalty minute total ever was 44 minutes, would be afforded a hearing to defend himself against possible suspension, Blatter said “No hearing because I already had a seeing.” The former FIFA boss said he reviewed video of the incident and while Hossa probably did see Zaborsky coming and might have turned his back a little to the oncoming player, Zaborsky’s “malicious intent was as plain as the signature on a check.” Blatter went on to say “I am surprised Hossa didn’t suffer greater injuries. I am suspending this young player for 2 games and I hope this suspension will teach him – and all others – that trying to hurt another professional will result in supplementary discipline from the league office. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a date with a bank teller.”
Zaborsky’s Milan teammate Par Arlbrandt was the first player ever suspended by Blatter, who was born in Visp, Switzerland, less than a 3-hour drive from Milan. Jamie McGinn seems like the likeliest candidate to replace Zaborsky in the Guerriero lineup. Tomas Jurco has taken Hossa’s place in Prague’s lineup.
Coincidentally, Jurco, Zaborsky and Hossa were all teammates on Slovakia’s 2014 Olympic team in Sochi, Russia. That experience might have been the genesis of hard feelings between the latter two players because both competed for the same spot in the Slovaks’ lineup. ( Pre-Olympics Story)
