Givani Smith suspended for flipping off Sault Ste. Marie bench, will miss Game 7 of SSM-Kitchener Rangers series

Via the Free Press’s George Sipple, Givani Smith’s decision to flip off the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds’ bench after scoring during last night’s Kitchener Rangers win = Smith won’t be available for today’s Game 7 of the OHL’s Western Conference Final:

Here’s the OHL’s suspension ruling:

Game of Sunday, April 29, 2108 – Sault Ste. Marie at Kitchener

The Ontario Hockey League today announced the results of a review of an incident which took place in a playoff game played in Kitchener on the 29th of April, 2018, involving the Rangers and the visiting Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds Hockey Club.

The incident reviewed was an inappropriate gesture made by player Givani Smith of the Kitchener Rangers Hockey Club at the conclusion of the above-noted game.

Based on a review of the incident, it is the position of the League that player Givani Smith shall be suspended for two (2) games effective immediately.

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!

19 thoughts on “Givani Smith suspended for flipping off Sault Ste. Marie bench, will miss Game 7 of SSM-Kitchener Rangers series”

  1. Givani Smith is in need of some maturity so he does fewer really stupid things. This kind of stuff will limit his potential to playing in ECHL./

  2. Good. Smith should be suspended. And I hope Kitchener lose Game 7 so his season is finished. I said the moment we drafted him that this was a wasted pick. His ceiling was a 4th line agitator. You don’t waste a 2nd round pick on something that you can get each year on the waiver wire. We should have kept drafting d-men…Sam Girard was selected right after Smith. Kale Clague went 4 picks later. Carter Hart was on the board. He’d be a potential #1 goalie just as all these other young players blossom. Instead we draft a 4th line winger who has controversy and drama wherever he goes.

    1. What other course could the league take Homer?

      Still, my first reaction is, great, another “Smith” move.

      We should also consider, this is a black person in a sport dominated by white people. While that isn’t me saying he shouldn’t be suspended, the league should be looking into and discussing why this result happened. If things are on the up and up then no problem. But, don’t bury a racism problem if it exists and certainly don’t fault a young man acting out his frustration of other bigoted people………after all this is a sport that allows people to repeatedly punch another player in the head and yet won’t call that intent to injure, just saying….

  4. On another note: Tri-Cities was eliminated last night in OT, 6-5. Rasmussen 1G/1A. Totals for playoffs: 14GP, 16 G/ 17 A for 33 points. Outstanding effort. Last series was against Carter Hart, top goalie prospect for the Flyers.

  5. “Last series was against Carter Hart, top goalie prospect for the Flyers.”

    I didn’t realize this. Ras didn’t go off like he did earlier, a couple goals were empty netters iirc, but still a strong showing for a guy that pushed for the team last year and certainly will make one for 18-19.

    1. Carter Hart drafted a few picks after Givani Smith. But I guess we had Mrazek and Coreau so went for another 4th line agitator…

      2. I can’t believe we missed on Jagr too. Detroit will never live that one down.

        How many teams missed on Lidstrom? I forget….

        1. All teams miss on players all the time. Nobody is perfect.

          But at the same time, our philosophy has been pretty flawed. When we knew that Lidstrom, Rafalski, CHelios, and Stuart would be retiring…wouldn’t you try to select a lot of d-men to hopefully rebuild a new top 4? Seems logical right. Then explain why we picked fewer d-men leading up to their departures than any team in the NHL? Here we are all these years later still desperately trying to build a defense and we select a 4th line winger in Givani Smith when there were skilled d-men and a strong goalie prospect on the board. If we selected more d-men and missed, well I wouldn’t be that critical. That’s the nature of the draft. But when the holes in this organization are plain to see (ie top 2 centre, top 4 D, #1 goalie) then they deserve criticism for continuing to select wingers. Ferraro, Jurco, Frk, Nastasiuk, Svech, Smith…so many high picks wasted on unnecessary wingers.

          But why do I even try having an intelligent discourse here…

          2. Exhibit A right there.

            Simple question…are you pleased with the draft philosophy of the last 10-15 years. Not hits and misses. But the general approach? Are you pleased with the ratio of C, F, D, and G, and in particular, when adjusted by round? Because as you might discover, a disproportionate amount of our D happens to be selected in rounds 4-5-6-7.

          3. “why do I even try having an intelligent discourse here…”

            If we are all idiots then, yeah, why do you even try. You should go somewhere else…..oh….dang….you’ve been banned from those other places….yet you still wonder why?

            “All teams miss on players all the time. Nobody is perfect.”
            That’s been said to you dozens of times yet you still continue with insinuations about missing on certain players…..
            “Carter Hart drafted a few picks after Givani Smith. But I guess we had Mrazek and Coreau so went for another 4th line agitator…”

          4. Try to separate how these players turned out, and ask why the position was targetted to begin with.

            Our pipeline on defense was awful. At the time of Smith’s selection we had a future comprised of…Smith, Ouellet, Sproul, Saarijarvi, and had just selected Cholowski that afternoon. That’s it. Nothing else in the system. So with an early 2nd round pick we decide not to add another d-man, nor do we add another centre, nor do we target the highest rated goalie in the draft, nope, we select yet another winger with a low ceiling. Some of you keep dwelling on the players themselves. I’m questioning the philosophy. Its a fact that we selected the fewest ratio of d-men in the entire league in the years leading up to the retirement of Lidstrom, Chelios, Rafalski…and that many of those d-men that we did select were in rounds 4-5-6-7 which had a small chance to succeed. This is why our defense looks so awful today. But I guess we’re not allowed to question that or have a civil discussion about it…

          5. With all that said above……

            In the 5 draft years before Lidstrom retires there are arguably only two defensemen that could have come close to replacing him, Rossi (2008) and Subban(2007), who were drafted after Detroit’s first pick. I don’t know what jackpot you were looking for outside of those two guys that the Wings could have used on any extra picks. Taking a whole bunch of forwards during that time might actually mean the Wings actually knew what they were doing by hedging their bets on getting a pretty decent forward since there’s a better track record of finding decent to good forwards in later rounds then Dmen. Maybe then they could have made a trade for a solid replacement for Lidstrom.

          6. “Our pipeline on defense was awful. At the time of [Givani] Smith’s selection we had a future comprised of…Smith, Ouellet, Sproul, Saarijarvi, and had just selected Cholowski that afternoon. That’s it.”
            Hronek.
            Malmstrom.
            Sambrook.
            Holway.
            Wheaton.
            McNulty.
            McKee.
            De Haas.
            Picked up….
            DDK.
            Rouso.
            Renouf.
            McIlrath.
            Hicketts.

          7. Hronek wasn’t in the fold when Givani Smith was picked. LOL at the rest of the d-men you listed. Also note I never said to “replace” Lidstrom. I said rebuild a top 4. Also it’s Josi, not Rossi…

          8. “Hronek wasn’t in the fold when Givani Smith was picked. LOL at the rest of the d-men you listed. Also note I never said to “replace” Lidstrom. I said rebuild a top 4. Also it’s Josi, not Rossi…”

            Wow. Splitting hairs, how intellectual of you.

            I give you an actual list of prospects after your flippant list and all you can do is split hairs. BAH HAHA HAHA AHHHAHAAAHHH. All I can do is laugh at you.

            ” Its a fact that we selected the fewest ratio of d-men in the entire league in the years leading up to the retirement of Lidstrom, Chelios, Rafalski…and that many of those d-men that we did select were in rounds 4-5-6-7 which had a small chance to succeed. This is why our defense looks so awful today.”

            So, why did you even bring the retirement of these players, including Lidstrom, if you weren’t arguing for replacing them?

            Oh no, here it comes………”I never said that [exactly].

            You are poorer then Donald Trump.

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