NHL suspends Washington Capitals' Garnet Hathaway three games for spitting incident

The NHL suspended Washington Capitals forward Garnet Hathaway for three games without pay one day after he was ejected for spitting at Anaheim Ducks defenseman Erik Gudbranson in a melee Tuesday night. 

The league announced the news Wednesday in a public statement, noting that Hathaway will forfeit $24,193 towards the Players' Emergency Assistance Fund as part of the punishment. 

A scrum broke out in the second period of the Caps' 5-2 win after Washington forward Brendan Leipsic's heavy hit on Anaheim's Derek Grant led to a goal by Chandler Stephenson to give the Capitals a 3-0 lead.

Hathaway reacted to fight Grant before Anaheim's Nick Ritchie and Gudbranson intervened. Then Hathaway spit at Gudbranson and received a match penalty after his actions were confirmed on replay.

"I reacted a little emotionally. Unfortunately spit came out of my mouth after I got sucker punched and it went on to him," Hathaway told reporters. "It was an emotional play by me. You don’t plan any of that stuff in your head. It was a quick reaction and unfortunately, the wrong one from me after a sucker punch."

A frustrated Gudbranson told the media, "That's about as low as you can dig a pit. ... It's something you don't just do in our game. And he did it."

Contributing: Mike Brehm.