No supplemental discipline for Penner

Another game, day in which the question of supplemental discipline has been raised.

Per Tracey Myers of CSN Chicago, Dustin Penner will not face a hearing for a third period forearm to the head of Dave Bolland as shown in the video below.

Skip 35 seconds in for a slowed-down replay of the collision.

Though the hit didn’t appear to pass the threshold of being suspension-worthy, a two minute minor should have been assessed as Penner caught Bolland in the head with a reckless forearm that spun the Chicago forward around. It didn’t appear vindictive or intentional, just a forearm that Penner raised with opposing players in tight quarters, perhaps as an attempted hit gone awry, or perhaps as a means of bracing against possible contact.

Not that precedence is always useful in the Department of Player Safety’s logic in evaluating postseason discipline, but if Duncan Keith was assessed one game for a retaliatory stick-flailing that cracked and chipped several of Jeff Carter’s teeth in an incident behind the play, Penner wasn’t realistically going to miss any games for the above hit. Of the three questionable hits from the series – a list that also includes Bolland’s unpenalized low-to-high hit that caused a concussion and made Mike Richards’ head the principal point of contact in the waning moments of Game 1 – this hit was the least sordid, and that’s not to casually dismiss a blow to the head. A minor penalty would have been appropriate in this case.

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