{"id":562574,"date":"2026-03-25T04:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T04:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/562574\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T04:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T04:22:08","slug":"ducks-gudas-returns-from-suspension-i-feel-terrible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/562574\/","title":{"rendered":"Ducks’ Gudas returns from suspension: ‘I feel terrible’"},"content":{"rendered":"

VANCOUVER \u2014 And for the sixth game, Radko Gudas<\/a> returns from suspension. But it will still be months before Auston Matthews plays or practises.<\/p>\n

Gudas, the Anaheim Ducks<\/a> defenceman, returns from his contentious five-game suspension tonight against the Vancouver Canucks after ending Matthews\u2019 season on March 12 with a horrible knee-on-knee hit against the Toronto Maple Leafs\u2019 captain.<\/p>\n

The Grade 3 tear of the medial collateral ligament that Gudas caused resulted in major knee surgery for Matthews, one of the National Hockey League\u2019s biggest stars, and re-ignited debate about the chronic leniency of the league\u2019s department of player safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really hate the way it ended up, the point of contact,\u201d Gudas told reporters after the Ducks\u2019 morning skate at Rogers Arena. \u201cI’m not a fan of that. I never want to injure anybody out there. It’s a hard-fought game. It’s just, yeah, I never want to go out there and hurt anybody. I feel terrible about the outcome. I just committed to the play, and unfortunately that was the point of contact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gudas said he texted Matthews after the game in Toronto, and the Maple Leaf got back to him a couple of days later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn’t like the point of contact, either,\u201d Gudas said. \u201cThat’s what I\u2019m looking at; I\u2019ve got to respect… I\u2019ve got to learn. I\u2019ve got to be better as a hockey player. I never want to go out there and hurt anybody. It’s very unfortunate. I reached out to him, too. We spoke. I never want to see anybody get hurt, so I feel terrible about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

What was the phone call like?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s very hard to, really hard, to keep in conversation,\u201d Gudas said. \u201cJust wanted to make sure that (he knew) it was not my intention to hurt anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 14-year NHL veteran, the 35-year-old Gudas had been suspended four times previously, albeit not since 2019 when he was issued the last of a series of bans with the Philadelphia Flyers.<\/p>\n

But he faced only a telephone hearing with NHL justice czar George Parros \u2014 a review process that limited the player\u2019s suspension to five games.<\/p>\n

It was an atrocious hit. A defensive-zone turnover by a Ducks teammate had Gudas speeding back to his slot, where Matthews was alone with the puck. As the Maple Leaf was sidestepping Gudas\u2019 charge, the defenceman kept his left knee in place and barrelled through his opponent\u2019s knee.<\/p>\n

It was what people in hockey call a \u201cplay gone bad.\u201d Gudas probably did not intend to injure Matthews but he is responsible for his actions.<\/p>\n

Just eight days later, however, with some players and many fans still questioning the fairness of the suspension \u2014 five games for Gudas, the rest of this season and who knows for next year about Matthews \u2014 Parros issued only a three-game ban to A.J. Greer of the Florida Panthers, who deliberately injured Calgary Flame Connor Zary by stalking him down the ice and shoving him head-first into the boards.<\/p>\n

Gudas\u2019 hit was reckless. Greer\u2019s was predatory, dirty and inherently dangerous. But worth only three games.<\/p>\n

Viewed together, these incidents seem to reinforce criticism that the NHL\u2019s department of player safety is as concerned about protecting the perpetrator as the victim. Of course, that has long been the complaint about the criminal justice system, too.<\/p>\n

But the NHL is a private workplace. In conjunction with its players\u2019 union, the league writes and enforces its own safety standards, and certainly could make it a safer place for workers by issuing more punitive and dissuasive suspensions in cases where one player has seriously hurt another with an illegal hit or has deliberately injured someone.<\/p>\n

Greer and Gudas were assessed major penalties and game misconducts for their hits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI respect the league’s decision,\u201d Gudas said.<\/p>\n

Later, he added: \u201cI\u2019ve tried to stay on the good side. I stayed for a long time, over seven years since my last incident. So I’m doing everything in my power to stay away (from suspensions), to stay on the right side, to play hard, but be on the good side of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think every player needs to develop as his career goes on, (get) better and improve in every aspect of his game to stay in the league and stay on the top of those levels. So yeah, definitely development, learning, a lot of stuff goes into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upon his return to the Ducks, Gudas immediately ran into trouble; he had to skate a penalty lap after being the last player to arrive for coach Joel Quenneville\u2019s huddle at the end of the morning skate.<\/p>\n

Of course, Quenneville was asked about Gudas\u2019 return from suspension.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I think that there was nothing premeditated in all that,\u201d he said of the hit. \u201cIt was instincts. He felt bad, he talked to Auston, and, you know, it is what it is. I think that we’re moving on, and we’re about trying to get points against this team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NHL will probably move on, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VANCOUVER \u2014 And for the sixth game, Radko Gudas returns from suspension. But it will still be months…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-562574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}