Radko Gudas was suspended for three games for an illegal check to the head of Ottawa Senators player, Mika Zibanejad. A faceoff win by the Senators sent the puck back to Zibanejad, who was in shooting position. Gudas stepped around a Senators' player, took a stride and lunged towards Zibanejad. Gudas lunged upwards out of his crouched position, and his forearm made contact with Zibanejad's head. Zibanejad went down to the ice and didn't return to the game after taking the hit.
There was no penalty assessed to Gudas during game action. Gudas is a first time offender and had no fines or suspensions assessed to him prior to the hit on Zibanejad. Gudas will sit out the three games without pay, and the money will go to the Players' Emergency Assistance Fund. He'll lose $15,944.62 while not playing.
The Flyers are already short-handed on defense with the injuries to Mark Streit and Nick Schultz. Mark Streit is out for six weeks, possibly longer depending on his recovery. Schultz, who took a heavy hit against the New York Islanders, is day-to-day with an upper body injury. The five remaining healthy defensemen are rookie Shayne Gostisbehere, Michael Del Zotto, Evgeny Medvedev, Brandon Manning and Luke Schenn. The Flyers next game is Friday night against the New Jersey Devils so hopefully Nick Schultz will be ready to go by then.
Gudas has played in 22 games this season and only has one point. He has 37 shots on goal, 118 hits and 36 blocked shots. He is averaging 20:44 of ice time per game. Gudas has been logging over 20:00 of ice time in the nine games since Streit went down with an injury. He has also been a big part of the Flyers penalty kill, which has killed off the last 20 man advantages against. Gudas isn't afraid to block shots either.
He is one of the Flyers more physical defenseman with Luke Schenn being the other. Gudas isn't afraid to throw hits along the boards or in open ice. He will take the occasional bad penalty because of the open ice hit, which can come back to hurt his team. Gudas is an aggressive defenseman that will hit the opposing player and try to disrupt his offensive play.
The Flyers will have to find someone else to take his minutes during a game or spread them out among the remaining defensemen.
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