“As far as the ruling goes, I’m happy it was reduced to 10 games”, Wideman said after the game.
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The NHLOA said it “strongly disagrees with the arbitrator’s decision”, adding “The message in reducing the suspension that is sent to NHL players, as well as athletes all over the world, including children, is that the code of conduct toward officials has changed”. While Wideman’s eligible to play Friday against the Coyotes, it’s highly unlikely that he’ll be in the lineup after such a long layoff and the fact that the Flames would have to demote a player to make a roster space for Wideman. Henderson, however, won’t be as fortunate.
The NHL said it “strenuously” disagreed with the decision and was “reviewing the opinion in detail to determine what next steps may be appropriate”.
The defenceman has already served 19 games of the 20-game suspension.
In his opinion, Oldham wrote Wideman did not “deliberately strike” Henderson, and did not act with intent to injure.
Thanks to an arbitrator, Dennis Wideman gets his 20 game suspension reduced to 10 games.
Oldham was swayed in particular by the testimony of NHLPA witness Mathieu Schneider, who argued that “striking someone requires intent”, and Stephen Walkom, the NHL’s senior vice-president and director of officiating, who testified that Wideman “knocked (Henderson) to the ice with enough force to hurt him, even though he probably didn’t intentionally mean to hurt him”.
Tied 1-1 headed to the third and with Arizona on a power play, Antoine Vermette snuck out of the corner with an unaware Wideman nearby, and from the side of the net, steered in a flawless cross-ice pass from Martin Hanzal. With his sentence cut in half by Oldham, Wideman will forfeit $282,258 in salary instead of $564,516.
Henderson got a concussion of his own from the blindside hit, which Oldham wrote could not be called a cross-check.
He also noted Wideman’s “11 years of discipline-free performance”. “I take this factor to be a positive weight in Wideman’s favor”, Oldham wrote. At one point upset at the length of the appeals process, Burke told reporters that he just wishes it’s expedited for the next player who goes through it.
“This is the first time this process has been invoked, and we respect the process”, Burke said after the suspension was reduced. I think being it was the first time, a precedent setting there was a lot that went into it from both National Hockey League and NHLPA.
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He also said that by neutral arbitration standards, the time line for a ruling from Oldham was not unreasonable at all.
