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May 5, 2009 – 4:20 PM
You would probably think that Chris Kunitz would face some sort of punishment from the NHL for what appears to be, in the slow-motion video above, a deliberate cross-check to the face of Simeon Varlamov. But that would be giving the wacky NHL too much credit.
In another chapter of the NHL's lingering them of inconsistency in disciplinary decisions, it has been decided from way on high that Kunitz will not face a suspension of any kind. It's the second instance in less than a week in which the NHL hasn't handed down a suspension where most sensible people expected one, after they decided to let Mike Brown keep playing despite de-facing Jiri Hudler.
With this decision, the black sheep among questionable on-ice physicality is Donald Brashear's hit on Blair Betts in the first round, as Brashear was handed a suspension (a steep five games for that particular hit, in fact). I'm still not sure what was so different about that hit that it warranted punishment when the others didn't.
The Kunitz cross-check doesn't have the same brutality as the other two, and Varlamov (unlike Betts and, to a lesser extent, Hudler) wasn't hurt on the play, but the intent was there. In an era where the NHL is trying to shake its reputation for being goony and overly violent, where it insists it's trying to protect the skulls of its players, shouldn't an intentional stick to the head be worth at least one game? Not to the NHL, apparently.
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