Sharks' Hertl receives similar suspension to the one Pierre Engvall got, despite Hertl two-hand slashing his opponent in the face
The NHL's Department of Player Safety continues to be consistently inconsistent. This season's rash of dangerous high sticks has provided plenty of evidence of that. This time the long arm of the law caught up with San Jose's Tomas Hertl for slashing Calgary's Elias Lindholm in the face.
On the play, Lindholm started the altercation by throwing 2 completely unnecessary crosschecks at Hertl. Hertl then turned and swung his stick with 2 hands directly into Lindholm's face. As the DoPS video notes, this wasn't a careless play. This was deliberate. It's a nasty play, and an extremely dangerous one.
Compared to Hertl's slash, the one Pierre Engvall sat 1 game for last week was a love tap. It's incredible to me that both plays resulted in a similar suspension. It's even more shocking that Kirill Kaprizov's slash to Drew Doughty's face only brought a fine.
Here's another look at Engvall's chop on Durzi.
And here's Kaprizov on Doughty.
The NHL's explanation of the decision to suspend Hertl can be found here.
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 19 | 47 ANSWERS Sharks' Hertl receives similar suspension to the one Pierre Engvall got, despite Hertl two-hand slashing his opponent in the face How many games should Hertl have been suspended for? | ||
| $5k fine | 4 | 8.5 % |
| 1 game | 7 | 14.9 % |
| 2 games | 11 | 23.4 % |
| 3+ games | 25 | 53.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
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