Ryan Getzlaf suspended for kneeing incident; Jannik Hansen also gets 1-game IIHF ban

Getty ImagesIt's late July, and NHL players are either chilling in their lake cabins or listening to Gary Bettman explain how little they'll share in the League revenue under the next CBA. Getting a suspension for an on-ice incident probably isn't on their minds.

And yet, Ryan Getzlaf just received one this week.

Don't worry Anaheim Ducks fans — it only applies to international play.

Please recall the IIHF world championship quarterfinal back in May, when Canada lost to Slovakia. Michal Handzus scored with 2:32 left in regulation and on the power-play — his team earning the man advantage after Getzlaf was given a controversial 5-minute major for kneeing Slovak forward Juraj Mikus.

Said Getzlaf after the game:

"He jumped inside on me," Getzlaf explained. "He's a smaller guy. All I tried to do was get a piece of him with my shoulder, which I did. It's a sick way to lose; it's a tough pill to swallow. It hurts. It hurts like hell right now."

Apparently, the IIHF didn't feel that shame was enough punishment, handing down a 1-game suspension for Getzlaf on Friday.

From the IIHF:

The panel concluded that Getzlaf's action was not considered deliberate but potentially dangerous. It was taken into consideration that Mikus was lucky to be able to continue to play further on in the tournament. The panel also concluded that Getzlaf extended his knee and could have avoided making contact with his knee. As he did not, he therefore took the risk to injure his opponent.

(You know, maybe Shanahan could do some freelance work, because we really need a video here …)

The IIHF specified that the suspension was for "Canada's first game of the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Stockholm and Helsinki"; is that "time served" whether or not Getzlaf is on the team?

In addition, Jannik Hansen of the Vancouver Canucks and Denmark was suspended for one game after he "was actively involved in attacking Norwegian players Ole-Kristian Tollefsen, Martin Røymark and Mats Rosseli Olsen in a scrum." On Hansen:

The panel concluded that although the linesman tried to prevent Hansen from continuing his action, the player ignored these attempts and searched for new confrontations with his opponents. Hansen could not be calmed down. This resulted in sending the player off the ice and into the dressing room in order to prevent any further escalation.

The full list of suspensions is here.