Kings' Denis Gauthier suspended for 5 games for hitting Josh Gorges

Kings’ Denis Gauthier suspended for 5 games for hitting Josh Gorges

Sports Columnist

Feb. 2, 2009 2:37 PM PT

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The NHL suspended Kings defenseman Denis Gauthier for five games as punishment for his nasty elbow to the head of Canadiens defenseman Josh Gorges during the teams’ game on Saturday at Montreal.

Gauthier got a five-minute charging penalty and a game misconduct for the blow, which stunned Gorges and left him visibly wobbly.

Gorges returned and committed a mistake that led to a Kings goal but then did not play the third period.

Gauthier will lose $56,451.61 to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund. He will be eligible to return on Feb. 14 against Edmonton.

The Kings thought they had a tape that showed Gauthier hadn’t left his feet when he struck Gorges but that apparently didn’t carry much weight in the face of the NHL’s very necessary crackdown on hits to the head.

More later at latimes.com/sports.

-- Helene Elliott

Sports Now

Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.