NHL keeping Hawks' Shaw in suspension limbo

The drama in the desert continued Monday.

On the same day Andrew Shaw had his hearing with NHL top cop Brendan Shanahan concerning his run-in with Phoenix goalie Mike Smith in Game 2, the Coyotes decided to hold Smith out of practice.

This despite Smith saying he was “100 percent” after Saturday's game.

Interesting.

Adding intrigue to the whole soap opera is that the NHL reportedly won't make a decision on a punishment — if there is any — for Shaw until today.

Coyotes coach Dave Tippett wouldn't go into details about the decision to practice without Smith, Martin Hanzal and Lauri Korpikoski on Monday, telling reporters only that “our health is fine.”

Meanwhile, Shaw was back in Chicago hoping for the best.

“It'd be really tough,” Shaw said of a possible suspension.” I'd probably be really upset with myself. I just don't want to miss a chance to play.”

His teammates were thinking positive following Monday morning practice.

“He was trying to go for the puck. Smith turned and Shawsie was trying to get out of the way there,” Patrick Kane said. “Kind of a tough break because Smith went down for a little bit and then you lose a player like Shaw for five minutes. I guess it's the refs' call. I don't think he'll get suspended. It seemed like a pretty innocent play and Smith said he's 100 percent.”

Bryan Bickell watched the replay of the adventure behind the net Saturday night.

“It was kind of 50-50,” Bickell said. “I know Shaw's not a guy who would be running the goalie. It just happened that way.”

Shaw, for his part, reiterated his stance to a huge group of reporters after practice.

“I wasn't deliberately going in there,” the rookie said. “If you look, my eyes were focused on the puck, and I was leaning forward to get to the puck.

“When he turned to fire it my way, I kind of panicked — I didn't want to get hit in the face. So I kind of turned my body, and at the last second his head came out, and I tried turning my shoulder away, but I had nowhere to go. I was right against the boards, and unfortunately the collision happened

“He's 100 percent OK and I'm happy for him.”

Whether he gets suspended or not, Shaw realizes he probably has a big target on his back for the rest of the series.

Probably

“Yay and nay,” he said. “They're going to go out there and play their game, but obviously if they've got a chance to hit me, they're going to probably hit me.”