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Originally Posted by GioforPM
C4L's post is exactly how I see it. To me a lot of it has to do with comon sense and history. Wideman has never been an aggressive or dirty guy. He had no reason to target a linesman. He didn't even look mad - just woozy.
Hrudey says right off "Wideman doesn't even see him". That's exactly what I think happened. He didn't see him until too late and braced for impact at the last second. Henderson was completely unaware and went down hard, just like when a player hits his own teammate - the results are worse because no one expects it.
For this to be an intentional act, Wideman has to (a) be mad about a hit that wasn't very dirty, if at all; (b) decide to take revenge; (c) decide to take revenge on an official; (d) decide to hurt that official. Wideman wasn't complaining about the hit as he skated to the bench. He wasn't looking for the player who hit him. He seemed pretty intent on getting to the bench IMO.
Once again, I recognize there are people who see the opposite, but I've never heard why Wideman would make these choices.
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Even on the bench after it happened, you can see one of the players mentioning it to him and Wideman looked confused until he saw it on the big screen.
It was incidental and there was no intent to injure. The 10 games was justified. More than that was too punitive.