NHL suspends Blue Jackets' Jared Boll 4 games for late hit (Video)

Jared Boll’s repeat offender status wasn’t going to help him when he was summoned by the NHL’s Department of Player Safety for a late hit on Pierre-Edouard Bellemare of the Philadelphia Flyers Tuesday night.

After a phone hearing, the DoPS has decided to sit Boll for four games, causing him to forfeit $82,926.84 in salary.

Bellemare wasn’t eligible to be checked on the play after his dished the puck off to the teammate, so with Boll coming in and clobbering the Flyers forward, it was an easy call for officials and the NHL’s DoPS to make. (Boll was given a major and game misconduct for the hit.)

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As Patrick Burke notes, this isn’t a case of a player finishing his check. The amount of time elapsed from Bellemare’s pass to the hit was more than enough for Boll to avoid the check or minimize the contact.

Fortunately for Bellemare he wasn’t injured and remained in the game. Boll was last suspended in March 2015 for three games following an illegal check to the head of Patrick Maroon of the Anaheim Ducks.

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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy

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