Stand up for yourself by making a clean hit, not by tick for (significantly worse) tack. That is the part that you may be missing, in both those cases the player who was the target of a Keith cheap shot did something to precipitate the incident but at the same time Keith's reaction was significantly worse than that of the original incident, both in terms of the action and in terms of the injury caused (the Carter slash could have been much, much worse).
Standing up for yourself doesn't entitle a player to run around, elbowing, slashing, and delivering dirty hits to everyone who the player thinks has wronged him in the past.
Also the hit that Sedin put on Keith happens in every single game, the hit that Keith put on Sedin doesn't. The hitting of a glove away (which I think Carter was trying to do) isn't something inherently violent and happens often when a player is attempting to pick up a stick (you rarely see someone drop a glove). If a suspension or a fine was given on either play it would be a joke and would have occurred only due to Keith's dirty response.
|