"I think reality is (Tuesday) night he made a mistake," coach Wayne Gretzky told the Tribube, who also said Roenick will sit out of tonight's game in favor of Mike Ricci.
"I'm not disappointed with him because J.R. is a very emotional young man, and he's a good person, but what he did last night wasn't right."
Roenick said he watched at least part of the game while eating dinner in a restaurant in Vancouver, and he was not seen in the Coyotes dressing room after the game.
"I treat players like men and they should act like men," Gretzky told the Arizona Republic. "JR, all and all, has been pretty positive. But the reality is, he made a mistake ... There will be ramifications for what happened."
Gretzky wouldn't say when he might put Roenick back in the lineup and mentioned that Roenick broke the unwritten rule that states players who aren't playing stay for the game.
"What, do you give your support from the press box? Give support with pom-poms from the press box?" said Roenick.
Added Gretzky: "He was legitimately hurt. He could hardly get through the game in San Jose. If he were 21 years old and had 25 goals, then yeah, you throw him in the lineup. Reality is — and nobody likes to face it — he's not 21 years old and he doesn't have 30 goals right now, so I was giving him a break and a night off to rest his back, to regroup and come back."
Roenick, who is making $1.2 million this season, has scored just once in 28 games for the Coyotes and has a minus-9 rating.
