by D. Vogt

Created on: August 10, 2010

In ice hockey, a game misconduct penalty means the ejection of the player from the game, often followed by a suspension of one or more future games. However, unlike with other penalties, a team is allowed to send a substitute onto the ice while one or more of their players has been sent off with a game misconduct. In the official National Hockey League (NHL) rule book, game misconduct penalties are covered by

Rule 23.

Game misconduct penalties generally are given for particularly severe or unsportsmanlike behaviour, as well as in circumstances where the referee believes that a player not only fouled a member of the opposing team, but intended to injure him. A player given a game misconduct typically has been given another penalty as well, usually a five-minute major penalty. However, the game misconduct penalty does not require the player's team to be shorthanded; instead, the player must simply leave the ice and the bench.

The NHL rules provide a large number of scenarios in which game misconduct scenarios can be given out. Some of these are automatic misconducts, including hitting a spectator in the stands, abusive statements made to officials after the game is over, racist statements made on the ice, and spitting on another player. Game misconducts may also be given out for attempting to "continue a fight" after it has been broken up by the linesmen, fighting off the ice (such as on a bench), jumping into a fight already occurring between two other players (known as the "third man in" rule), leaving the bench to join a fight, interfering with or striking a referee, or refusing to accept a referee's ruling after an initial challenge is rebutted.

Finally, misconducts may also be given out in particularly serious cases of charging, elbowing, boarding, clipping, head-butting, kneeing, stripping off one's shirt in preparation for a fight, or throwing one's stick over the glass. If the same player takes three major penalties in the same game, he is automatically given a game misconduct as well.

Within the game, the consequence of all game misconduct penalties is the same: the player is sent off for the duration of the game, and then fined $200. However, the rules provide for somewhat different consequences afterward. All game misconduct penalties are automatically reviewed by the league executive in case a suspension, formally known as supplementary punishment, should be issued. Teams can also submit a complaint requesting that a player be suspended, although it must be received by the league within two days of the alleged incident or it will be immediately rejected.

The official rules set out several guidelines for these suspensions. If a player receives a total of three misconduct penalties at any time during the season, he is automatically given a one-game suspension. Each subsequent misconduct then results in another suspension. A player can also be suspended for a game after incurring just two game misconducts, if they involve abusing either referees or linesmen, or if they involve high sticking, slashing, spearing, butt-ending, checking from behind, or boarding.

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