[19Yzerman19]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

The head was not the principal point of contact. In fact, 19Yzerman19 even admits as much.

Wait, what?

Originally Posted by 19Yzerman19

Principal point of contact was the head.

It's right up there. It's exactly the opposite of what you said.

Incidentally, rule 48 also demands that the head be targeted, which it clearly was not in this case.

This is where we agree:

Originally Posted by 19Yzerman19

For the record and according to my own personal standards as to what should be suspendable, I don't think that there should be a suspension because [...] Niederreiter was not intentionally picking his head.

That said I'm not sure that this is still the case. According to Elliotte Friedman this "targeting" requirement was removed before this season and the rule was changed to "a hit resulting in contact with an opponent's head where the head was the main point of contact and such contact to the head was avoidable". It's possible that NHL.com just hasn't updated it or that Elliotte was wrong but I was under the impression that this had changed. EDIT: Yup, according to google I'm remembering right, it was widely reported in September.

Still don't think it's relevant practically because the DOPS hasn't demonstrated that its decisions are based primarily on what the rule says.

Originally Posted by strombad

After giving it a day and watching it a few more times, I really don't understand how anyone thinks the head was the principle point of contact.

It took the brunt of the hit. I'm going by the first angle shown in the slow-mo gif. His head gets jolted pretty hard by Nino's shoulder.

Re: lunging for a puck, I am describing Burrows's extension in an attempt to retrieve Kassian's terrible drop pass, which altered his trajectory suddenly and caused him to stop short of the spot Nino was lining him up in. By doing so he put himself in a vulnerable position and therefore is partly to blame for getting hit the way he did.

In any event, determining the suspendability (or likely length of suspension) on the basis of what is written in the rules on what kinds of hits are bad hits is an exercise in hilarious naievete. I'll reiterate that if a star or beloved player had taken this hit and had decided to stay out for precautionary reasons a suspension would have ensued. In this case, it's pretty much a tamer version of James Kneel vs. Brad Marchand's head.