It's definitely questionable, but the NHL determines severity of penalties based on whether the player is injured as a result. It doesn't matter where the crosscheck lands. Pavelski doesn't get injured at all if Eakins doesn't crosscheck him and that's really all that matters to me.
I think you and I both know that's a horrible precedent to set and there hasn't been one because of it. We can name a few Buff hits where he only got a minor as someone writhed on the ice in pain. Stralman's hit to Little as he was thrown off balance 3-4 years ago comes to mind as one that wasn't called and there was no call after either. I get it's not apples-to-apples necessarily but you can probably talk to a fan of every fanbase and they should be able to pick one instance for and one instance against - it's terribly inconsistent.
What Eakin did is way more dangerous powering out of a squat with a crosscheck to the head/neck area. He literally sends him airborne with an illegal check. Stick makes first contact with Pavelski’s shield, follow through is a bit lower. Wouldn’t be surprised if Eakin gets another playoff game or a couple regular season games if they lose.
Pavelski was still bringing himself up after a faceoff and Eakin was going to power right through him, illegally with a crosscheck, but
through the body. At no point did Eakin's stick go above Pavelski's shoulders, let alone the neck. If Stastny wasn't trying to go through the middle too and instead veered somewhere else, we wouldn't be talking about this play at all because Pavelski likely would've been able to catch himself - instead, Stastny braced for impact and (up to your judgement of whether or not it was malicious) extended his arms all the way through, making the Pavelski's head the first thing that hits the ice with momentum.
No excuses for Eakin but someone could probably put together a compilation of similar cross checks throughout the season that were not penalized. The problem is the ref,
in retrospect without any sort of method for review other than what he might have actually seen, called a major based on the result.
The ref in the back does not have his hand up nearly 6 seconds after the faceoff.
The ref looking right at it does not have his hand up roughly 1-2 second after the hit. As such, the following statement is bullshit:
Now, regardless - it doesn't change the fact that Vegas couldn't stop 4 pucks from going into their net. It didn't stop Vegas from winning the series when they were up 3-1. But they were at a massive disadvantage, undeservedly - that's a huge factor in the outcome.
EDIT: At the end of the day I suppose, adding video review is just opening Pandora's Box to the plethora of penalties that actually go uncalled, or we get into a situation where no one knows what the hell goaltender interference actually means, but at the bare minimum should be being able to make a decision with an appropriate review.
EDIT 2: I should also have it on record that I think the NHL doesn't call enough penalties, playoffs or not, and I'm tired of elite talent being forced to play at 70% the majority of the time because they're labouring from some injury (because they delivered or received a hard check; or they took a slash to the wrists; etc.), or missing time entirely. It's ridiculous.