Has a player ever been suspended for hitting someone when they were prone or slamming someone down to the ice? Not being sassy, but I don't ever recall it happening.
For throwing someone to the ice, these jump to mind:
Of course those are just a couple of very recent cases. I'm sure there have been a bunch of others if we dig into the archives.
DOPS has to be is consistent...so if there is precedent, then I could see a argument that they let Wilson off lightly. If there is a good example please post it.
DOPS has to also give a verdict consistent with the laws on the books too. If there's no explicit rule that could be cited, I suspect a suspension would be appealed and overturned.
Precedent is not an issue and neither is finding an explicit rule.
The NHL's ability to issue supplemental discipline applies to any violation of the playing rules. Throwing a punch or getting in a fight is a violation of the playing rules, and the refs formalized that by giving him penalties on the play.
The NHL isn't required to use precedent to issue their rulings. The factors that go into their judgments are explicitly laid out in the CBA -- use of force/violence, resulting injury, repeat offender status, game context, and any other general miscellaneous factors that fit into the puzzle. Precedent is not one of those.
The NHLPA can only file an appeal to a neutral arbitrator if the suspension is for 6+ games (and they have done this successfully on Wilson's behalf in the past) but even then, his multi-repeat offender status makes that very, very, very hard to justify. It's hard to imagine a scenario where he could successfully argue precedent matters at all.
Wilson got a match penalty and then a fine for what he did to Buch...if it ended there would the match penalty and fine have been sufficient?
Wilson wasn't given a match penalty, but a 10-minute misconduct. If he
had been given a match penalty this issue likely wouldn't have blown up to such a degree, because he'd have likely been suspended for that penalty alone. At a minimum it would have triggered a more thorough review of the incident.
Part of the reason this has become such a
thing is that he was lightly penalized by the refs (allowed to return to the game and then score a key goal) and was barely penalized at all by the league.
If so, then are we just debating whether he deserved a suspension for slamming Panarin?
Basically, yes. I don't think anyone's issue is with the fine for punching Buchnevich. It's the non-action on the totality of the sequence and especially the Panarin slam that stirred up the hornet's nest.
