Yesterday, the league handed down a one-game suspension on Los Angeles Kings' center Jarret Stoll for a violent hit to Ian White of the San Jose Sharks. Stoll is out for tonight's game two at HP Pavilion, which is fitting because White is also going to miss due to injuries. White's absence from the remainder of game one threw off a lot of the rhythm for the Sharks, who had to play other guys like Dan Boyle for longer than they had originally intended. It's just a bad situation all around.
Well, the Kings' coach, Terry Murray, said that they'll accept the suspension without protest, but he was absolutely upset by the fact that Jason Demers didn't receiver any disciplinary action for his hit on Ryan Smyth. After the jump, you'll see a video and you can be the judge. It certainly is a hit that probably should have been called, but Murray calls a glancing hit that doesn't do any damage five times more severe than a hit that made White's head bounce off of the boards and put him out of commission for one game and the foreseeable immediate future. Personally, I think the hit looks worse because of the way Smyth ducks and changes his positioning as Demers makes the ill-informed decision to launch.
What matters here is Murray's wording, I suppose there is a point where you can argue that launching yourself is something very severe and harboring more ill-intent than Stoll did on White, but I don't see how you classify the actual hit itself - in other words: the damage done - as five times more severe. That's just posturing for your team, the media and your fans. Still, Demers needs to not make mistakes like that one, it could have ended up costing the Sharks big, to be down two players like that. After the jump is the video. (Video uploaded by 28Media)