NHL issues ruling on Taylor Hall’s sucker-punch and fans are stunned!

It was a messy game on Tuesday night between the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs. In the second period, Bruins’ Taylor Hall retaliated for a hit he didn’t like by punching Leafs’ Ilya Lyubushkin in the face/neck area from behind. A sucker-punch, plain and simple.

Lyubushkin dropped to the ice immediately. He left the game and did not return. Hall was penalized two minutes for roughing.

Everyone expected the play to be reviewed by the NHL’s Player Safety and it did. But while fans thought Hall would be suspended, he only got a fine, $5,000, the maximum allowable under the CBA, for Roughing Lyubushkin.

Spare change.

There will be no suspension.

While Hall's punch was nothing close to the infamous Todd Bertuzzi-Steve Moore incident, he still went after a vulnerable opponent and punched the defenseman above the shoulders. However, it was not as insignificant as NESN color commentator Andy Brickley made it sound, stating that there was “just a little grab to the right ear” by Hall. 

I guess it lays somewhere in the middle and the NHL determine that it was worth just a fine.