Mike Green suspended three games

Washington Capitals defensemen Mike Green was suspended for three games late this morning by the NHL for his elbow last night on Florida Panthers center Michael Frolik.

Green elbowed Frolik at the 4:24 mark of the first period last night and was assessed a two minute minor.

Green spoke with the NHL front office at 10:30 this morning about the incident and the league announced its decision shortly after.

The young defensemen was fined 81, 606.21 for the hit and would not elaborate on his feelings about the suspension after practice, only saying that he would "Let Bruce talk about it."

Boudreau, however, did speak about the suspension.

"I don’t know how react anymore," said Boudreau. "Obviously, I’m very upset about it, but what can you do? It’s like fighting when you get a ticket when you know you didn’t do anything wrong, from the police. You can’t argue with them. So, you sit there, you take it. I better not say anything. I’m livid about the whole thing anyway."

This is the second time this season that a Capitals' player has been suspended for an on-ice incident. Alex Ovechkin was suspended for two games in early December after a knee on knee hit on Carolina Hurricane's defensemen Tim Gleason.

Boudreau did express his reaction to the announcement of Green's suspension.

"I’m using livid right now," said Boudreau. "I’m not going any further with it, so don’t put any words into my mouth where I end up saying something stupid. Let’s talk about something else."

Moments before the hit on Frolik, Green was checked cleanly by the Panthers Cory Stillman. Green, however, said that hit had nothing to do with his hit on Frolik.

"That was not at all the case. I’ll let Bruce talk about it," said Green. "I got body checked clean and I wasn’t mad or anything. He didn’t hurt me."

Green did say, though, that he didn't think he should've been penalized for the hit.

"I threw a body check when he kind of cut across [the ice]," said Green. "I didn’t come across to aggressive."

The question surrouding Green today was the condition of his right knee. Green took a knee on knee hit from Dmitry Kulikov late in the second period and stayed on the ice for several minutes. Green did skate at the end of practice this morning, but according to Boudreau, probably would have still missed tomorrow's game with the Lightning even without the suspension.

Green had a different assessment.

"I don’t know it depends," said Green. "You try to play when you can play. It’s not broken, so."