from Sam Carchide of Philly.com,

It boggles the mind the way the NHL seems to have no rhyme or reason in setting lengths of its suspensions. The league appears to give more importance to the severity of the injury incurred as opposed to the severity of the action.

Example: Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin took a baseball swing with his stick at Michael Raffl’s head on Feb. 11. Raffl didn’t miss any games. Malkin received a one-game suspension.

Example II: Jake Voracek saw a 227-pound freight train named Johnny Boychuk charging at him from behind, so he braced for the impact and slightly leaned toward the Islanders’ defenseman. Voracek hit Boychuk’s head with his back, but based on the angle and his awkward position, it was virtually impossible for him to be targeting that area of the body.

Yet, he received a two-game suspension because Boychuk was injured on the play, which was far less dangerous than the Malkin incident.

Predictably, Voracek’s appeal to reduce the suspension was rejected by commissioner Gary Bettman. What a shocker that Bettman didn’t overturn a decision made by one of his coworkers.

It says here that all appeals should be heard by an impartial arbitrator — as is done for suspensions of six games or more.

The NHL needs to find a way to show much more consistency in deciding the length of suspensions.

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