Wow - didn't realize the Kessel spear was a full 2 minutes into the melee...should have been plenty of time to cool off a bit and let common sense prevail, but he actually had to pick up his stick again to do it. No heat of the moment defence there.
Also, rewatching Kessel/Scott from the puckdrop, Kessel actually instigated it...clearly Scott said something that he reacted to - he reached out on Scott first, then realized who it was and started hacking his way out of there.
It's one thing to hack and slash if a goon is trying to do something non-consentual with you, but he basically challenged him and then tried to bring a stick to a fist fight.
I actually think his actions are far worse than Clarkson and deserving of at least 10 games. I'm sure there will be lots of factors that work in his favour (no prior history), but I think this should be punished more harshly than say hits to the head that happen in the fastest game on ice...
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