NEW YORK – If anyone in the NHL was going to defend Chris Simon, or disagree with the minimum 25-game suspension the NHL levied against him for clubbing Rangers winger Ryan Hollweg in the face with his stick last week, it was going to be his coach and teammates with the Islanders.

“I’m shocked, I just thought it was way too harsh,” coach Ted Nolan said Monday before the Isles left for a four-game road trip beginning Tuesday night in Montreal. “I thought it was very harsh, too harsh. I could see the (final 15 games of the) regular season, maybe, but the entire playoffs, or if we don’t do well, into next season, I thought was too harsh”

A person with knowledge of the situation said Simon was mulling an appeal on the length of his record ban. Nolan, who has known Simon since coaching him in juniors nearly 20 years ago, said Simon is “very remorseful” about the incident and “devastated” about the suspension.

Nolan also thought the concussion that doctors confirmed Simon suffered when Hollweg checked him into the boards to start the play would “hold more weight” in NHL VP Colin Campbell’s decision.

“I was just hoping they’d take into consideration what the whole thing was,” Nolan said.

“(Simon) wasn’t probably in the right state of mind when he did it, from (Hollweg’s initial) hit, he was a little off-kilter, and for him to do something like that was really uncharacteristic.”

Campbell contended Sunday that he had spoken to Islander doctors and the league’s medical counsel before the punishment was levied.

The Isles’ Brendan Witt and Ryan Smyth also were “surprised” by the length of the suspension, especially based on precedents and because Hollweg didn’t miss any either of the Rangers’ two subsequent games.