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Tyler Barr banned for rest of SPHL season after face-spearing (Video)

greg wyshynski

Tyler Barr of the Louisiana IceGators is good at a couple of things.

One of them is fighting other players, amassing over 180 penalty minutes four times in his career. Another is getting suspended, something that’s now happened to him four times this season in the Southern Professional Hockey League.

But this will be his last suspension in 2015-16. Because it’s for the rest of the season.

The SPHL announced on Tuesday that Barr was barred for the last 19 games of the regular season and the playoffs for spearing Alec Hagaman of the Peoria Rivermen in the face.

Yes, you read that correctly. Face-spearing.

Barr was playing his first game after a five-game suspension. He laid out Hagaman with a check, and was going to be whistled for a penalty.

From Dave Eminian of PJStar.com:

Hagaman was on his knees, vulnerable, and a whistle had already stopped play. It was an extremely dangerous play.

Louisiana put Barr in its starting lineup Sunday, and he committed what easily could have been three penalties -- none of which were called -- before his shift was a minute old. He was ejected with a major spearing penalty for the incident with Hagaman, and the league will no doubt catch up to him in its repeat offender protocol.

That they did.

“Mr. Barr’s actions in this game, along with his previous history that has resulted in three other suspensions this season, show a continued lack of respect and complete disregard for the safety of his opponents,” ruled SPHL Vice President Doug Price.

“As such, Mr. Barr has been suspended for the remainder of the regular season and playoffs.”

Again: This was Barr’s fourth suspension this season. And this is the one that got him five games:

Wouldn’t continued lack of respect and disregard for safety be apparent after, like, the third one?

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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.