Sabres coach Ted Nolan unhappy with length of Zac Rinaldo suspension

Buffalo Sabres head coach Ted Nolan expected the NHL's Department of Player Safety to comedown harder on Philadelphia Flyers forward Zac Rinaldo. Rinaldo was suspended four games on Monday for a hit that concussed young Sabres defenseman Chad Ruhwedel. Ruhwedel is expected to miss the rest of the season as a result of his head injury.

"It’s frustrating," Nolan said on Tuesday. "You’re talking about a person, you’re not talking about losing a player for four games, you’re talking about injuring a human being with a permanent injury, those injuries are not three game suspensions, far from it. I think we have to suspend very stiffly and harshly."

Continued Nolan: "Those things you can avoid. You don’t have to hit someone in a vulnerable position, you can sidestep, you don’t have to hit and it’s very frustrating."

Nolan suggested that general manager Tim Murray would complain to the league about the lenient, in Nolan's view, suspension handed out to Rinaldo. "Tim mentioned something to me about three games ago," Nolan said. "He said, ‘Tell me everything because we’re going to complain about everything', so he’s probably made a number of calls already and I’m quite sure he’s going to be very vocal on this one."