Dustin Brown delivered an knee to knee hit on Mikhail Sergachev and got a major and game misconduct for his scummy actions. If he somehow does get suspended, how many games will he get?

He should get 5 games because he's the reason Hertl isn't a superstar.

Well it's 1 game. And apparently Kings fans are mad.

Lmfao. It should be the other way around. And yes, we are pissed. They should be happy Brown's getting away again

I'd take one game and Sergy returning in the third. It was a pretty dirt hit but I'm just glad Tampa's not down a Dman.

The double standard that the Department of Player Safety has with dealing with these dangerous plays is asinine. I have no problem with suspending players, I just cannot fathom how this ruling makes any sense.

I guess when your overpaid you can afford to bribe the officials.....

Ok can we play devils advocate for a second?

Anyone else here play ice hockey? I do and I've accidentally done that to a player myself albeit not nearly at that speed and severity as both those guys were flying at the time of the hit. I wonder if Brown stayed completely straight the whole time (Like literally) how much distance Sergachev would of cleared him by? I think it would of been inches at best.

So its comes down inches and time. Brown is already in the same posture to hit Serg as he makes his deke. Stop the video at 0.30. The problem here is i think Sergachev miscalculated the speed Brown was coming at and rather than deke Brown with his foot speed, he tries to dodge the hit by gliding around him. Serg is coming at the same direction Brown is and this is what makes it virtually impossible for him to avoid. While Browns knee is definitely extended slighly, it was prior to Sergachev's deke and Sergechev himself is not skating at the time of the hit. He's gliding.

So lets just assume Brown had enough time to think and avoid the hit, How would that look like exactly? Remember Brown is already the one crouched with the knee in that posture before the hit, Its Sergachev who makes the quick deke around Brown. Could Brown of straightened his body upwards and parallel'd his knees evenly in that split second? I don't have a clock to measure the time exactly but guessing its roughly half a second maybe even less.

This reminds me of the two guys going into the boards to get a puck scenario and one guy turning the opposite direction at the last second with the hitter right behind him. The hitter has so little time to react.

Now listen I would of been happy with the NHL giving him a lengthy suspension as i will always ere on the side of the offensive player caught by the physical play. I would rather have a game of players that don't hit but score beautiful goals rather than lots of hits but stifling offensive creativity.

But... i feel Brown may have a case here. Up until what, half a second before impact he had lined Sergachev up perfectly. Its was the quick movement on part of Sergachev that put him in that position. Sergachev moved his whole body around Brown except for the knee down on his left leg. Brown's leg extension was what, 2 maybe 3 inches at most? That isn't so much as clipping as it is reactionary. He follows through with his hit as he would if he got Serg cleanly. His body posture would not of changed.

Like i said I would rather suspend Brown simply on principle than to put the onus completely on Serg's shoulders but if we're all being honest and un-biased, in the time Brown had to see the Sergachev deke and align his knee in a way to avoid Serg's knee is virtually impossible. Either Brown would have had some sort of preconceived idea of what Serg would of done and been able to adjust his body better to actually hit him or he would of literally stood up straight and skated lifelessly past Sergachev. Either way, i don't think either option was possible given the split second time he had to make it in.

This hit IMO isn't suspension worthy all things being even but I say suspend him anyway. I'd rather have players being afraid to hit due to suspension than players being afraid to deke due to being hit. (Except for the obviously clan hit)

@F50marco I agree with the logic on it and when you review the play(s) frame-by-frame, you can make the reasonable assessment that it isn't suspension worthy.

However, specifically to what I was saying is that, based on the standards that the NHL has set, which would be suspensions based on the plays in "real-time", there is a double standard. Clearly these are all worthy of some fine/suspension, but the fact is that they haven't been proportionate punishments.

I think that your contention, which is valid and vivid, is that this isn't a suspension worthy play. My contention is that, based on prior punishments, there is a double standard.

To build off of your analysis @F50marco it could be argued that the Radko Gudas slash-to-the-back was not intentional at all.

In the below video, at the 10 second mark, you notice that Radko's left skate is basically "bending" or is on it's side. This would result in him either falling down or having to use a force to level himself by falling forward. His right skate is also slightly cocked at a weird angle that makes the off balance contention plausible. At that same mark, in order to regain his composure, he drives his stick downwards to compensate for himself falling down as a result of the left skate just some milliseconds prior. As a result of the compensation, Gudas' stick strikes the Jets player in the back, which ultimately resulted in a 10 game suspension.

The stick would have hit the ice with the roughly the same force as it did that it hit Perrault. The stick would have inevitably hit the ice but it just happened to hit Perrault instead. Is this 10 games suspension worthy? Not according to other standards. That's part of my issue with this entire system.

The problem is everyone has a different opinion, so how exactly are they supposed to get it right? It really isn't as easy as some make it out to be if the goal is to be as un-biased as possible.

As for the Gudas play, was it intentional? Probably not. But the fact that Gudas used a weapon rather than piece of his body for his infraction, Perreault was not out of the line of Gudas's stick prior to the hit and quickly got into the line of it afterwards and that Gudas seemingly brought his stick down faster as he gained his bearings leads me to believe that this although wasn't necessarily intentional, showed that almost no effort was given to stop. Its one thing to move your leg out of the way within a half second while flying to deliver a hit. Its another to be with your stick in the air and bringing it downwards Violently.

Then again Jab, we're back at square one. Differing opinions on something that is seemingly black and white.