Florida prospect Owen Tippett suspended for flipping foam puck into crowd

In one of the dumbest suspensions across all of hockey, Florida Panthers prospect and current Mississauga Steelheads forward Owen Tippett was suspended for a game for flipping a foam puck over the boards.

I’m told a puck into the stands is usually a five game suspension but because Tippett flipped a foam puck, the league took that into consideration and suspended him just for today, meaning it won’t affect his status for the World Juniors. (2/2)

— Iain Colpitts (@IainColpitts86) December 9, 2018

You can see a foam puck make its way on the ice. Tippett supposedly shot the puck back over into the stands.

Annoyingly, it looks like it was off-camera. You can see the foam puck land on the ice, and Tippett head towards it, then the camera moves and you see the ref talking to him a second later. pic.twitter.com/tEVPuf1TRv

— Caitlin Berry (@caitlinsports) December 10, 2018

Frankly, it’s baffling Tippett got a suspension for this at all. He wasn’t trying to harm anyone or anything close to that, instead, he was just flipping a foam puck which made its way onto the ice back into the stands. To get a suspension – even a one-game ban – is ridiculous. Is the CHL that stingy on the price of pucks? Because this wasn’t even a real one! No one is going to get hurt by a foam puck.

The suspension lacks any rational explanation besides liability concerns (it’s a foam puck!). Tippett will have one-game to figure out just what the heck he did that was wrong.

[Reddit Hockey]