I think both moves were dangerous and deserving of 10+ game suspensions, but the big difference for me is that Neal's was a crime of convenience while Thornton skated across the ice to cheapshot Orpik. A player needs to have enough self-control to do the right thing when he realizes that his knee will be coming within inches of another player's head, but it's slightly more forgivable for him to make the wrong (very dangerous) split second decision to take advantage of the opportunity to smoke one of the league's biggest punks. Skating up behind a guy, slew-footing him, then punching him multiple times while he's down gives a guy much more time to think about the risks of what he's doing.
Like I said, I'd give them both 10+ games, but I don't see how anyone can think that what Neal did was "worse."
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