Shelley suspended 10 games

LONDON, Ontario -- Ever since taking over for Colin Campbell as the NHL's top disciplinarian job during the playoffs last season, Brendan Shanahan has been dreading his first ruling.

It took just three nights of preseason hockey for his first test to come up.

"I'm really going to try my best to be true to whatever incident occurs first, and true to that incident as if I've been doing this job for 10 years," Shanahan told Yahoo Sports in an August interview. "... And not make this about me and establishing a tone early.

"If I want to establish any tone early, I hope to establish fairness, transparency."

That tone was well-established on Thursday, as Shanahan dropped the hammer on Flyers forward Jody Shelley, suspending him for 10 games, including the remainder of the preseason and 5 regular season games, as a result of his hit on Toronto's Darryl Boyce in Wednesday's preseason game.

It is Shelley's second suspension in less than a year, making him a repeat offender in the league's eyes.  As a result, he will be fined $14,634.15 per game missed ($73,170 total) as his $1.2 million salary is divided by 82 games instead of 186 days in the season. The money goes to the NHL players' emergency assistance fund. This is his 5th career suspension.

Video of the hit is below.

TONIGHT'S GAME: It has been an annual tradition for the Flyers to visit London, Ontario, for a preseason game at the Comcast-Spectacor managed John Labatt Centre, but it's a first for a close geogaphic rival.

London, situated in Western Ontario, is a 2 hour drive from Detroit, London and Buffalo. Hence, fans are divided by all three NHL teams, with the Red Wings getting the best of the share.

Funny thing is that the Flyers have hosted Toronto (twice), Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Washington and the NY Islanders in London, but never Detroit. The Wings will be making their first-ever appearance at the JLC and their first appearance in town since 1993 at the old London Gardens. They bring with them a pretty decent lineup:

Forwards:
Valtteri Filppula – Henrik Zetterberg – Johan Franzen
Justin Abdelkader – Darren Helm – Todd Bertuzzi
Gustav Nyquist – Joakim Andersson – Willie Coetzee
Tomas Jurco – Brent Raedeke – Francis Pare

Defense:
Nicklas Lidstrom – Ian White
Jonathan Ericsson – Jakub Kindl
Brian Lashoff – Doug Janik

Goalies: (splitting time)
Ty Conlin
Jordan Pearce

For the latest updates, follow Frank Seravalli on Twitter: @DNFlyers