Plymouth Whalers' Gianluca Curcuruto gets 12-game ban for headshot on Ottawa's Travis Konecny

There is checking to make an impact and then there is hitting to hurt a valuable player who was in a prone position. The collision on Sunday between Plymouth's Gianluca Curcuruto and Ottawa's Travis Konecny was clearly the latter.

The sport loses when a player of Konecny's gifts gets targeted, and on the first viewing and 21st (as noted), it appeared that Curcuruto was charging and interfered with the 17-year-old NHL draft prospect during Sunday's Plymouth Whalers-Ottawa 67's game. The Ontario Hockey League, in response, has handed down a 12-game suspension to Curcuruto, the Whalers' most seasoned defenceman, citing the player's excessive speed, the distance travelled to deliver a check to the head and the fact it put Konecny out of the game.

This is the longest suspension the OHL has meted out so far this season.

A saving grace for the 20-year-old Curcuruto and the Whalers might be that it was apparently inconclusive whether there was elbowing.. That might have added more games to the suspension.

The awful part, speaking as a fan of the game, was that Konecny got drilled while he was being assertive by trying to get the puck and initiate a rush. That tends to contribute more toward good hockey than chipping it out or, worse, stoppign short out of worry about being hit high by an oncoming player. In a way, the OHL's reigning rookie of the year got burned being fearless, which is far from being reckless. It will be interesting to see how projected high NHL draft pick bounces back.

The Whalers were doubly dinged on Tuesday since wing Mitch Jones received an eight-game ban for a blindside check to the head of Kingston's Ted Nichol during a game on Oct. 17.

Plymouth is already short-staffed, with star goalie Alex Nedeljkovic nursing an injury and ballyhooed Columbus Blue Jackets first-rounder Sonny Milano yet to debut this season. There have to be consequences for plays that are offside, though.

All told, the OHL handed down 24 games' in suspensions on Tuesday. Erie Otters defenceman Cory Genovese will sit four for a check from behind in a game vs. Sudbury on Oct. 17.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.