The dive was really convincing so I guess you gotta punish the puncher!
This kind of embarrassing call is why I can’t watch the NHL as much as I used to. They have no fucking idea what to enforce so they enforce the wrong things for the wrong reasons.
Tkachuk didn’t even look focused on the play in this clip, which is the crux of the suspension. And that ignores the fact that he’s a famous pest from a family of pests who has gotten into fights dozens of times (38 by my last search); or we could look at his penalty minutes (123 so far this year, 134 last; the leader last year was 145). Literally his entire role on teams is to get away with stuff like this and people love it. Gross.
A lot of time when a fight starts, the players are looking everywhere before someone throws a punch. So you’re going to limit fights, right NHL?