NHL's suspension of Golden Knights' Brayden McNabb is surprising, but correct call

The NHL's Department of Player Safety announced on Wednesday that it has suspended Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb for Game 6 of their second-round series against the Anaheim Ducks. 

McNabb was ejected early in the Golden Knights' Game 5 win for interfering with Ducks forward Ryan Poehling, knocking him out of the game. 

It is the correct decision.

It is just a little surprising that the NHL reached it.

NHL's decision to suspend Brayden McNabb is deserved, but surprising

The biggest criticism of the NHL's Department of Player Safety in recent years, and especially under the leadership of current director George Parros, is the lack of consistency in its decisions. In some ways, this is another example of that inconsistency. It is just a rare occurrence where it is resulting in a suspension as opposed to no suspension.

Given everything we know about how the NHL handles these situations, and especially in the playoffs, this is a surprising call. 

For starters, McNabb was ejected extremely early in Game 5 on Tuesday night. Usually, when a player is ejected from a playoff game that early, the league has a tendency to view that as a De facto suspension because they were not actually available for almost an entire game.

It usually takes an extreme event for the league to sit a player out for a playoff game (or multiple playoff games). 

The only two suspension-worthy plays (in the league's eyes) this postseason involved players that had already been eliminated (Ottawa Senators' Ridly Greig getting a two-game suspension for a sucker punch, and Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy getting a six-game suspension for his slash on Buffalo Sabres forward Zach Benson). 

Those suspensions will carry over to the next regular season and involve neither player missing a single playoff game. 

This is the first suspension this year, actually involving a missed playoff game. 

There is also the fact that the McNabb hit on Poehling did not involve any head contact, which is usually a significant part of any discipline from the league. 

Even on matters of interference, head contact is the driving factor behind most punishments. 

This play had none.

McNabb has also never been suspended or fined previously in his 885-game career, another important variable in determining the severity of a suspension. 

Adding all of that up (the early ejection, the lack of prior history for McNabb, the lack of head contact) made it easy to assume that maybe the NHL would let him get away with either a fine or nothing else beyond the ejection.

But it didn't.

The fact that Poehling was injured on the play may have been the one thing that tipped the scales in favor of a suspension.

Whatever the case may be, it is the right call. 

McNabb's hit on Poehling was egregiously late and came on a player who was not only not eligible to be hit, having already lost possession of the puck, but also had no reasonable expectation to believe they would be hit.

It is a dangerous play. It is a needless play. It is the type of play that warrants a suspension. It just does not always result in one. This time, it did, and it is going to take one of Vegas' top defenders out of the lineup for a potential knockout game on Thursday night. 

The Golden Knights have a 3-2 series lead thanks to Tuesday's 3-2 overtime win.