Boom Lowered on Ristolainen

Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen found himself in some pretty hot water with the Department of Player Safety after he laid waste to Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jake Guentzel on Tuesday night.  The DoPS decided to hand the big Finnish defender a 3-game suspension, as per the video below, for the nature of the hit and the injury that had resulted in it, as Guentzel has suffered a concussion and has no timetable for a return, currently.

The 22-year old has flourished this season, despite being on a non-playoff bound team in Buffalo, picking up 5 goals and 44 points in 74 games this season, which had him ranked 12th overall among defensemen scoring, before action had started on Thursday night.

The suspension will start to be served on Saturday, go through Monday and Tuesday's games and he will be eligible to return on next Sunday, when the Islanders visit Buffalo.

For Benson, this is a pretty tough break, but his team has already had too many of those and at worst right now, he could drop from 13th to 14th, before this suspension is up.  His team started the night 50 points out of the money and didn't have a hope in any of the mini-games this year.