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Raffi Torres talks 41-game suspension, believes he can change (again)

Raffi Torres talks 41-game suspension, believes he can change (again)

The San Jose Sharks have played six games, which means Raffi Torres has 35 left on his 41-game suspension for his hit on Jakob Silfverberg in the preseason.

Meeting with the media for the first time since the NHL’s Department of Player Safety laid down the hammer, Torres was contrite (again) and explained that he didn’t appeal because he didn’t feel it would be successful given his history.

He said he knew right away it was a bad hit and that he was skating toward Silfverberg too fast to pull out of the hit.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it three times a day and just kind of, I put a lot of pressure on myself to be better, to be smarter and I made one mistake out there and it cost me,” he said, via Curtis Pashelka of the Mercury News.

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Torres also reiterated his belief that he can change and be a respective and productive citizen of the NHL.

Via the Mercury News:

“I know that I hadn’t played last year, but I have been changing my game. And I know I can play in this game. The numbers don’t lie. They’re not unreal, but I know I can score in this league, I can skate in this league, I can be effective and I can still help the team win.

“To be honest, it’s kind of a little bit of a blessing in disguise in terms of my rehab on my knee. This gives me a little more time. At the same time, I’m a couple years older than what I was. But the time now that I’ve had to let my body heal, mentally and physically, I feel like I can add on and play a few more years in this league and still be effective in ways that will not get me suspended with the high hits.”

Of course, with Torres’ past, this wasn’t the first time he’s held that belief.

In an interview with Nick Cotsonika in April 2013 following his suspension for the Marian Hossa hit, Torres said, well, pretty much the same exact thing:

“I feel like I can do more out there than just go out and run around and be an idiot,” Torres said. “I feel like I can make plays. I can skate. I can get to open ice. I think that’s the reason why I’m still in the game. I still can’t veer away from the physical contact, but I’ve got to keep it in the guidelines.”

Thirty days later the DoPS suspended Torres for the rest of San Jose’s second-round series with the Los Angeles Kings (six games) for a hit on Jarret Stoll.

An ACL injury kept Torres sidelined for all but five games over the last two seasons. Now he’ll be out until at mid-January, with this latest suspension costing him $404,860.29. And as we wrote earlier this month, once these 41 games are through, he’ll have been suspended for 74 regular season and playoff games total in his career. Torres has only played 703 combined games since entering the league in 2001-02.

It remains to be seen what the Sharks will do with Torres once his suspension is up in January, but if he does return to the ice, the next bad hit could be he last. He’s also set to become an unrestricted free agent in the summer, which should be interesting to see how radioactive he’s become to general managers around the league.

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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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