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Ryan Malone to face no further discipline for head shot on Chris Campoli

On Sunday I noted that I was rather impressed with what NHL VP Brendan Shanahan has been doing of late, though questioning how receptive players and the league will be to what appeared to be a zero-tolerance level of discipline.

So today many of us, and pretty much every MSM hockey expert out there, was waiting for Sheriff Shanny to lay the hammer down on Tampa Bay Lightning forward Ryan Malone.

Many of us were shocked when we learned, through NHL insider Nick Kypreos, that no further action would be taken for Malone’s hit on Chris Campoli.

It was confirmed later in the afternoon with a statement from Shanahan.

“We felt that this hit was the most challenging one so far in this preseason for the Department of Player Safety to evaluate,” said Shanahan. “In the end, we felt that Malone had committed to the hit when Campoli was upright. However, when the contact was made, Campoli’s head position significantly changed just prior to the hit.

“There are elements about the hit that we don’t like – specifically, the principal point of contact being the head and that it was not a full-body check. But the overriding factor in our judgment was that Campoli’s loss of the puck and subsequent bending forward for it just prior contributed significantly, if not entirely, to those elements.” – Brendan Shanahan 10/03/2011

Shanahan has also released a video explanation of his findings, which was something he did say he would demonstrate to show is considered a legal hit going forward. Still the hit of The Toronto Maple Leafs Clarke MacArthur, was a very similar hit.

Now..for the conspiracy theorists

Remind me again how many years Shanahan and Lightning GM Steve Yzerman were teammates?

Is Shanahan related to the Campbell name somewhere down the line?

I guess it’s just another problem for Habs fans to deal with, as was the case with the Zdeno Chara hit on Max Pacioretty, and Andrew Ference trying to decapitate Jeff Halpern.

We’ll just file this under H; not for Habs grievances, but as a hockey play…because that’s how the league is looking at it.

Many of the regular EOTP crew have weighed in on the decision earlier in the previous mentioned article, but feel free to voice your thoughts.

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