Nicholas Pezzetta, a 20-year-old defenseman playing for the Brixen/Bressanone HC Falcons (seemingly not related to Montreal Canadiens forward Michael Pezzetta), was punished by the Italian Ice Sports Federation (FISG), for exhibiting violent behavior towards a referee.
According to the FISG, Pezzetta struck a referee in the leg with his stick after a faceoff during a game. They stated that Pezzetta tried to injure the referee, and decided to suspend him for 13 months.
Watch a video of the incident here:
On Instagram, Hockey Worldwide shed light on more details:
In hockey, going after referees never gets you where you want. In this case, because of a small contact with the ref, a 20-year-old player will be kept away from the ice for over a year: a rough verdict considering that the referee wasn't severely injured. Forcing someone to stop doing something they love for a small stick hit seems absurd, but that decision isn't ours to take.
| POLL | ||
NOVEMBRE 3 | 160 ANSWERS Suspended for 13 months: hockey player Nicholas Pezzetta suffers major consequences for actions with referee Do you think Nicholas Pezzetta deserved to be suspended for 13 months? | ||
| Yes | 105 | 65.6 % |
| No | 55 | 34.4 % |
| LIST OF POLLS | ||
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YESTERDAY
JUNE 6, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Mitch Marner | 3 | 1 | 4 | |
| Tomas Hertl | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jordan Staal | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Shea Theodore | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Brayden McNabb | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Taylor Hall | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jordan Martinook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jackson Blake | - | 1 | 1 | |
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| Brett Howden | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Seth Jarvis | - | 1 | 1 | |
| William Karlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
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| Jaccob Slavin | - | 1 | 1 | |
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| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||