Panthers' Sam Bennett not punished for injuring Maple Leafs rookie with wrestling move
The Toronto Maple Leafs are in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2004, and they are not enjoying it so far.
Not only do they find themselves down in a 2-0 series hole against the Florida Panthers after losing two games at home, but they lost promising rookie Matthew Knies to a head injury during Thursday's game after Florida's Sam Bennett dropped a wrestling move on him.
Specifically, it looked like he hit him with the rock bottom.
Knies left the game and did not return, while Bennett was not penalized or given any sort of discipline from the league in terms of a fine or a suspension.
That is a dangerous takedown and not really relevant to the game of hockey or preventing your opponent from scoring a goal. It's just a bad play.
What Bennett did get fined for, however, was a cross-check later in the game on Toronto's Michael Bunting. Actually, it was more like a series of cross-checks, not only to Bunting's head-neck area, but also to his back after he was knocked to the ice.
That was worth only a $5,000 fine (the maximum allowed under the CBA), which is pocket change to a player like Bennett that makes $4.4 million per season on his contract.
The NHL's Department of Player Safety has come under intense criticism in recent years, and especially this season, for not really doing a consistent job in protecting its players from incidents like this.
George Parros, who runs that department, is a former NHL enforcer who made his career fighting people as his lone role in the NHL and sold a line of hockey gear with the tagline, "Make hockey violent again."
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