Guess The Suspension

Every Thursday, we're going to play a little game here on the Sin Bin called "Guess the Suspension." We'll post a video of a play in the NHL, and after the jump we'll tell you how many games the offender was awarded. Let's kick things off with a recent one:








The answer: 2 games.

James Wisniewski gets the same amount for pumping his arm 3 times that Hjalmarsson gets for putting Pommenville out indefinitely. Puck Daddy seems to think that this was a good thing, because it means Hjalmarsson's first game back after serving the suspension will be against-----wait for it-----the Buffalo Sabres. Personally, I don't buy it because a) I don't think Colin Campbell is that smart, and b) if he is that smart, then he's really pretty dumb.

Look, I'm all for The Code. But if Campbell intentionally set up the suspension this way, then he's opening himself up for a world of hurt. First, let's look at what Sabres forward Pat Kaleta had to say:

We're a team here and it'll get taken care of with the league or we play them Saturday so we'll make a point that you can't be taking hits like that against one of our leaders and one of our better players.

Sounds like a threat to me, even if he didn't name Hjarmalsson specifically (although that might be because he couldn't pronounce his name). So if there's a borderline hit in that game, you can't chalk it up to "heat of the moment." Because it's clearly premeditated.

Another reason Campbell should've dropped the hammer is because of this new "no headshots, no hits from behind" rule that the NHL passed this summer. What's the point of passing a new rule and when you get the chance to enforce it, you don't? At some point during the season, a similar hit is going to occur, and the guilty party is going to get a LOT more than 2 games (ed. note: this is most likely going to happen to a New York Islander). What's Campbell supposed to say at that point? "Oh, since he's not playing the team that the hit happened against for another 15 games, we're going to give him 15 games." Insane.

By the way, here's the new rule:

48.1 Illegal Check to the Head – A lateral or blind side hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and/or the principle point of contact is not permitted.

Blind side? Check. He hit him in the numbers. And since this isn't football and we don't have numbers on the front of the jerseys (for the most part....Dallas, I'm looking at you). I'd say it was a blindside hit. Seriously, I was looking for Sandra Bullock to jump into the scrum.

Now as for the head part....I don't think the head was the "target" per say, but I think you could argue it's the principle point of impact. Either way, this is just the NEW rule. That hit was a suspendable offense even without it.