by the AHL (as the AHL honours NHL suspensions). AHL President David Andrews suspended Downie for the first month of the AHL season as a result of the injuries to McAmmond. After serving his suspension in the AHL, Downie made his long-awaited NHL regular season debut with the Flyers on December 5, 2007, against the Minnesota Wild. He scored his first career NHL goal over one month later, on January 5, 2008, against Andrew Raycroft of the Toronto Maple Leafs. During the game, Downie got into a scuffle with Maple Leafs forward Jason Blake. While the linesmen were attempting to keep them apart, Downie got his left arm loose and sucker-punched Blake in the left eye while Blake's arms and hands were still tied up by the other linesman. During a game against the New York Rangers on February 9, 2008, Downie was hip-checked by Rangers defenceman Fedor Tyutin, and his skate hit linesman Pat Dapuzzo in the face. Dapuzzo required 60 stitches to reattach his nose, suffered ten facial fractures and was forced to retire as a result. During the 2008 Stanley Cup playoffs, in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals on May 13, 2008, Downie hit Petr Sýkora as the play ended on Ryan Malone's goal that gave the Pittsburgh Penguins a 3–1 lead. Sýkora did not have the puck when Downie hit him. In the following season, 2008–09, Downie initially made the Flyers' opening night roster before being later demoted to Phantoms. On November 7, 2008, Downie was traded by the Flyers to the Tampa Bay Lightning, along with Steve Eminger, in exchange for defenceman Matt Carle. Downie was immediately assigned to Tampa Bay's AHL affiliate, the Norfolk Admirals, before he was recalled and made his Lightning debut in a 4–2 defeat against the Minnesota Wild on November 28, 2008. Downie continued to split the season between Norfolk and Tampa Bay, and his reputation for unnecessary aggressive behaviour was further developed on February 28, 2009, after he slashed a linesman, Mike Hamilton, in the shin following a controversial empty-net goal in a game against the Hershey Bears, receiving a game misconduct for physical abuse of an official. Under AHL rules, the penalty carried an automatic 20-game suspension, which was Downie's second lengthy suspension. He would later make his return in the NHL regular season finale game for the Lightning. In the 2009–10 season, with the intention