BROWNNOSE
BOOTLICKER
Thursday's game between the Boston Bruins and Dallas Stars -- a 6-3 Bruins win -- was not for the weak.
It was the very definition of "old-time hockey" from the time the puck dropped at the start of the game. Nasty from start-to-finish, complete with a number of fights (four to be exact, three of which came in the first four seconds), big hits and a lot of goals. The play that received the most attention was Boston's Daniel Paille receiving a match penalty for his hit on Dallas' Raymond Sawada mid-way through the second period.
As Sawada gained entry into the Bruins zone, Paille came across and drilled him with a blindside hit that at first glance appeared to be a direct blow to the head. Such hits, of course, are now illegal in the NHL under rule 48. Along with the match penalty, the NHL announced on Friday that Paille will be suspended for four games, which also means he will have to forfeit over $23,000 in salary.
Said Mike Murphy in a statement released by the league, "Paille delivered a lateral hit where the principal point of contact was his opponent's head. Additionally, the injury suffered by the Dallas player was a factor in this decision."
Murphy, the Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations, handled the decision because Colin Campbell, the NHL's normal disciplinary czar, is the father of Bruins forward Gregory Campbell. Campbell (Gregory) was one of the players involved in some of the fisticuffs on Thursday, fighting Steve Ott right off the opening face-off, perhaps as a carry-over from a game last season when Ott boarded Campbell when he was a member of the Florida Panthers.