Music: {allcanada} Report: NHL investigating Barch-Subban incident

Sunday, January 1, 2012

{allcanada} Report: NHL investigating Barch-Subban incident

Panthers forward Krys Barch was ejected from Saturday's Montreal-Florida game after the first period. NHL Senior Executive Vice President Colin Campbell is investigating the details of the penalty.

The Miami Herald, citing an unidentified League official, said linesman Darren Gibbs heard Barch's verbal exchange with Subban at the end of the first period. The paper reported that Gibbs evaluated Barch's comments as a racial slur and ejected Barch based on NHL Rule 23.7.

Barch exited the Panthers' locker room without speaking to the media, but Florida coach Kevin Dineen talked to reporters.

"Well, my take is we have an incredibly broken-up player in there who feels extremely bad that there was an insinuation that something inappropriate was said and now it's moved on to a league matter," Dineen said. "And obviously the Florida Panthers, Krys Barch and all of us are really shaken up by this, that there was an insinuation that something was said that was inappropriate.

"Again I'll leave it with the league right now, but I think this is always a very sensitive area for anybody and we'll let the facts play out and make sure that things are handled accordingly and move forward from there."

Subban talked about it post-game too.

"Personally, I didn't hear anything. I don't even know what happened, really," Subban said. "A couple of guys on the ice told me that something was said. I don't know what was said. I didn't hear it. As far as I'm concerned it's really out of my hands, so I don't really know too much about it."