A big debate topic from last night’s action is Mike Cammalleri’s blatant punch to Martin Havlat after a face-off. Flyers’ goon Daniel Carcillo was just suspended for a similar act on Pittsburgh’s Max Talbot. Here’s the difference:

1. It was Carcillo.
2. He was on the ice for a penalty kill with 6 seconds left, taking the face-off (the last position he’d play is center!).
3. The NHL has made a point for no ‘message-sending’ when a score is decided.
4. Cammalleri and Havlat were going at it right before the face-off.
5. It was competitive spirit between those two.
6. Cammalleri was penalized.
7. And it’s not like he injured Havlat… Havlat only scored 2 goals after that.

There you go – that’s why Cammalleri should NOT be suspended by the NHL. I think it’d be an outrage if he did. There’s a big difference between Carcillo’s act and Cammalleri’s. I hope the NHL realizes it’s the playoffs, and cheap stuff is going to happen.

The ones who should be suspended/fined are the Canadiens who acted like punks at the end of last night’s game in Boston. Tom Kostopolous and Maxim Lapierre are the ones I’m singling out here. Lapierre took a run at Kessel after he pocketed the empty-netter… totally uncalled for! And then, as time expires, Kostopolous elbows Matt Hunwick in the face, and causes a huge skirmish. Those two are the ones who need to visit the principal’s office… not Cammalleri.
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Colin Campbell statement - per NHL.com (3:45 PM CT)

On the suspension of Philadelphia’s Dan Carcillo: “With six seconds left, you have a player who never kills penalties, a player who never takes faceoffs, coming out on a five-on-three (manpower disadvantage) and doing what he did – a repeat offender. So there are a number of criteria there that satisfy doing what we had to do … I don’t want to filter everything out of the game. But we want to take the dumb stuff out of the game.”

On hit by Calgary’s Mike Cammalleri on Chicago’s Martin Havlat: “When Cammalleri hit Havlat, there was a lot of risk to doing that. He took a two-minute penalty in a game where there could have been ramifications for doing that. But there are no ramifications when you’re losing 4-1 with six seconds left.”

[Source: RedLightD.Blogspot.com]

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