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Alberta Senior League Goon Gets 16-Game Ban for Elbowing Ex-Oiler Ryan Smyth

Smyth, now playing in a senior league in Alberta, took a blindside hit earlier this month and has been sidelined since.

A senior hockey player from Alberta is paying the price for a nasty cheap shot on ex-Oiler fan favourite Ryan Smyth earlier this month.

Kyle Sheen of the Lacombe Generals, a club in the Alberta Senior AAA hockey league, has been suspended 16 games for a nasty hit on Smyth, who spent the majority of his career in Edmonton. The beloved Oilers forward, who now plays for the Stony Plain Eagles, was seriously injured in Game 1 against Lacombe on March 11 during the provincial Sr. AAA finals.

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After cutting down the left wing and moving to the middle of the ice to release a backhand shot toward the net, Sheen delivered a late, blindside elbow to the face of Smyth, who was down on the ice for several minutes. He was taken to hospital for a C.T. scan and was examined for a fractured skull, but tests came back negative. He's been sidelined with a concussion as a result of the play and hasn't suited up for the Eagles since.

Sheen, the player who delivered the vicious blow, spent some knuckle-chucking time in various minor professional leagues including the SPHL, CHL, and UHL before joining Lacombe in the Alberta Sr. league. He spent his junior career with Kootenay and Kamloops, amassing 54 fights and 524 PIMs in 225 career WHL games.

Sheen will miss the remainder of the 2017 playoffs and likely another 5-10 games next season. With the series currently tied 2-2, Smyth is back skating and hoping to return, but his timetable is uncertain at this point, Eagles head coach Mike Tavaroli told the CBC.

Sr. AAA hockey is the highest level of senior hockey in Canada, with the champion of each province competing for one of the most prestigious trophies in Canadian amateur sports, the Allan Cup.

The way in which the hard-nosed grinder competed throughout his NHL career, who would've thought that some goon in the Alberta Senior League would be the one to (potentially) end Smyth's career for good?