NHL Player Safety rules on Acciari/Slafkovsky incident.

The National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety has made its decision.

Regardless of which way the league ruled on this one there was going to be one fan base unhappy with the ruling, and this time around I suspect it will be fans of the Montreal Canadiens who feel they got the short end of the stick.

According to Canadiens insider Eric Engels, the league will not be issuing any supplemental discipline to Pittsburgh Penguins forward Noel Acciari after he appeared to deliver a high hit, and perhaps even an elbow, to the head of former first overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky on Saturday night.

Former NHL players Luke Gazdic and Kevin Bieksa had both expressed their displeasure with the hit from Acciari following the conclusion of last night's game, but it would appear that the league itself did not see it the same way.

Here's a look at the hit in question:

I suspect that one factor in the NHL's ruling here was the rough stuff that occurred after the final horn had blown, especially the actions of Canadiens enforcer Arber Xhekaj. Xhekaj appeared to take a rather deliberate run at Acciari following the conclusion of the game, going knee on knee with the Penguins forward, and thus far there has been no announcement of any supplemental discipline for Xhekaj either. The league may simply view this as a matter that saw both teams crossing the line, resulting in them washing their hands of the entire situation. What that will mean for the next time these two teams cross paths remains to be seen, but I know I will be tuning in to see what happens.