PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Kyle Topping has received his penalty after a crosscheck on one of the referees.
Hockey expert Sanny Lindström criticizes the act, but is surprised by the punishment.
– We can’t actually turn a blind eye to that, he writes in Expressen.
In the last three weeks, there have been three situations where players have come into contact with referees in Swedish hockey. First up was Timrås Albin Lundin, who in the match against Örebro ran into the assistant referee. The forward received a three-game suspension by the disciplinary committee, which was later removed after an appeal to the National Sports Committee.
The Topping Judgment
Next in turn Anton Lundmark in Tingsryd who in the third period in the match against Östersund came from behind the head referee Fredrik Rönnberg and cast him down. It was also a three-game suspension for Lundmark.
And now most recently it is the Västerås player Kyle Topping which has been on the move.
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The center cross-checked the referee’s back when he was about to relocate, while Topping wanted to get past. Compared to the other refereeing incidents, the Canadian’s was the one seen to have been the most conscious. Which seems to be reflected in the punishment, which was written to five matches for “physical abuse of official”.
After the match, Topping and Västerås defended themselves by claiming that he thought the referee was a Nybro player as the shirt colors were so similar.
Lindström’s criticism
That’s something the hockey expert Sanny Lindstrom not buying at all, and the Expressen columnist is now harshly criticizing Topping.
– Topping deliberately pushes the referee away to get himself better space and place in that situation. It is an obvious indifference he shows in the situation and that for a second he would have confused the referee with a Nybro player which he himself stated afterwards is among the most ridiculous things I have read in a long time.
– Regardless of whether the referee in question perhaps did not perceive it on the ice and thus did not award a penalty, it is an act that you as a player should not do and thus it should be punished, writes Lindström in the evening newspaper.
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However, the former hockey player thinks that the suspension of five games was a very harsh punishment.
– Especially since a repeat offender like Växjö’s Ludvig Nilsson received a milder punishment for a much more dangerous tackle on Frölunda’s Tom Nilsson on Tuesday. Regardless of the length of the punishment, this was a clear report and a subsequent punishment. We can’t actually turn a blind eye to that.
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