Even staid TSN broadcaster Bob McKenzie expressed some shock on TEAM 1040 that the NHL would veer so wildly away from its own inconsistent precedents to seriously impact a first-round playoff series. And for what?

Torres is not a repeat offender. He did not leave his feet or stick out his elbow. He did not injure a player. Jordan Eberle saw him coming and had time to raise his right arm to protect himself. That alone means you can argue the hit was not blindside.

Torres continued to make the point, and it’s a good one, that Eberle put himself in a vulnerable position when he broke a cardinal on-ice rule by lowering his head to fish for a puck in a corner. It’s a similar argument to the one made when Dan Hamhuis exposed himself, watching a pass, for the Ryan Getzlaf hit.

Getzlaf didn’t get a penalty. Torres gets to sit out two of the most important games of his life.

—From Jason Botchford at The Province. The whole article is worth a read.