NHL Player Safety comes down on Sam Bennett.

The National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety has taken aim at the defending Stanley Cup Champions, and more specifically gritty forward Sam Bennett.

On Saturday morning, The disciplinary arm of the NHL announced that they would be handing out additional discipline to Bennett after a hit he delivered to Pittsburgh Penguins forward Drew O'Connor on Friday. Although the hit did result in a roughing penalty during the game itself, it would now appear as though the NHL felt that further action needed to be taken in this matter.

I suspect that the reason behind this fine is that we have seen this exact type of "roughing" from Bennett in the past and the NHL is likely looking to crack down on these antics from Bennett.

During the course of his hit on O'Connor, Bennett got his hands up and appeared to deliver a punch like motion to the face of O'Connor, a motion that will appear incredibly familiar to fans of the Boston Bruins who watched the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs. First here's a replay of the hit on O'Connor that landed Bennett in trouble today:

Bennett is no stranger to sneaking in a punch to the face during what looks like a normal body check, something that Bruins captain Brad Marchand learned the hard way during the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs. Bennett famously gave Marchand what appeared to be a sucker punch during a hit, one that led to a major point of controversy during the series between the Panthers and Bruins.

It would seem like this was a stiff warning from NHL Player Safety that Bennett won't be getting away with anything like this moving forward.