Rick Rypien Responds To Incident And Suspension

Added on Oct 25, 2010 by J Merrill in

NHL

Rick Rypien finally commented on the fan incident in which he was suspended for 6 games by the NHL. He had been silent on the subject since the incident, and even the day he was suspended, he refused to comment on what happened. In an effort to try to put this all behind him, he spoke with the press on Monday after the morning skate.

“It’s inexcusable what I did,” Rypien said. “The decision I made at that moment is something I’d like to take back. At the end of the day, I want to learn from it and never let it happen again.”

Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault supported his player, and is obviously anxious of getting Rypien back on November 6 against the Redwings. “I’m sure he told you he made a mistake, We all do at one point or another. I know I have. He made a mistake, he apologized for it and we’re turning the page and moving on. We have a lot of confidence in that young man.”

Daniel Sedin also chimed in, and vocalized his support for Rypien. “I think it was tougher for Ryp, but we tried to support him as much as we could, Now he’s got his suspension and he’s dealing with it. For the team it’s not a big issue. We come to the rink and try to play as hard as we can and hope we get some wins.”

As I reported here on Sportsbettingworld.com, while Rypien was leaving the bench area down the tunnel, he was being yelled at and a fan can be seen clapping, when Rypien reached into the crowd and started shaking him. The fans friend stepped in and another Cannuck can be seen pushing Rypien down the tunnel to separate the two. Minneapolis Star Tribune beat writer Mike Russo is reporting he spoke with the fan who said: “I was just standing straight up applauding as (Rypien) was getting kicked out. He was out of control, And then I said, ‘Way to be professional,’ and he obviously didn’t care for that comment and decided to grab me and almost dragged me over the rail. If my brother wasn’t grabbing me and the other player wasn’t grabbing him, he probably would have dragged me over the edge. Bottom line, I was assaulted.” he also told the reporter he was seeking a lawyer.

League rules state:

“Any player, goalkeeper or non-playing Club personnel who physically interferes with the spectators, becomes involved in an altercation with a spectator, or throws any object at a spectator, shall automatically incur a game misconduct penalty and the Referee shall report all such infractions to the Commissioner who shall have full power to impose such further penalty as he shall deem appropriate.”

Rypien has been suspended indefinitely until the NHL can review the tape, and they will probably look at how Rypien seemed to push the linesman as he was trying to stop the altercation on the ice as well. Vancouver Coach Vigneault said “I didn’t see the incident, When the linesman brought him over I was talking to the referee and the linesman. I haven’t seen a replay of it.” However, it looked like Vigneault was one of the people pulling Rypien off of the fan.