NHL suspends Gryba

Ottawa Senators defenseman Eric Gryba was suspended for two games by the NHL on Friday for his crushing hit on Montreal Canadiens center Lars Eller in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series. Gryba caught Eller with his head down at the Montreal blue line Thursday night in the second period. Eller crashed face-first to the ice, and was bleeding heavily as he was taken from the Bell Centre ice on a stretcher. He sustained a concussion and facial and dental injuries. Eller was released from the hospital Friday. “In our view, in attempting this very difficult check, Gryba does not hit squarely enough through the body. Eller’s head is the principle point of contact,” Brendan Shanahan, the NHL’s senior vice president of player safety, said in a video posted on the league’s website. – AP