Ohlund sits for four after rebuttal slash on Koivu

10 years of clean living for Mattias Ohlund didn’t hold much weight with the NHL on Sunday, as the disciplinarians of the NHL office issued a four game sit-down edict for Ohlund, after a conference call between the league and the Canuck front office.

The nasty slash late in Friday’s Vancouver-Minnesota game came after Mikko Koivu's elbow rubbed Ohlund’s face the wrong way, resulting in the Canucks rearguard to make like many a British Columbia Lumberjack and take to chopping away at Koivus calf area.

The Wild announced on Saturday that Koivu was going to be out of action for the next one to two weeks with a cracked fibula. The incident makes for an unfortunate setback for the under performing Wild and no doubt the injury figured into the amount of games given to Ohlund.

The Ohlund slash was but on of a number of edgy incidents in the course of the game, as the Canucks began to pull away with the lead, the more physical play and occasional cheap shots seemed to increase in frequency.

There were no other extra punishments were made by the league in regards to Friday night’s extra curricular activities on the ice.

Ohlund, who began his suspension on Sunday with the game against the Flames, will lose about 78 thousand dollars in salary and will miss the upcoming road trek that the Canucks will embark on, which takes them to Edmonton, Minnesota and St. Louis.

He returns to the line up in a week when the Chicago Black Hawks arrive in town.

His spot on the roster was taken by the recently returned Lukas Krajicek, who only recently healed up from a broken bone in his ankle.

The Canucks while probably disappointed in the number of games, provided the usual declarations of understanding how hard the job of discipline is and how they hope to just move forward from Sunday’s announcement.

CBC News--Canucks' Ohlund gets 4 games for slash
Twin Cities.com--Canucks' Ohlund banned 4 games for Koivu slash
Star Tribune--Koivu slash costs Ohlund 4 games
TSN.com--Canucks' Ohlund suspended four games
Canada.com--NHL suspends Ohlund four games for slash
Vancouver Sun--Canuck defence suffers another hit