[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Do you see the difference in terms of "hockey play", though? Leaving aside face punching (which is part of a weird consensual ritual both players fighting agree to, otherwise it's a sucker punch and thus suspendable), typically, slashes and cross-checks are done for a clear hockey purpose. You slash a guy to prevent a scoring chance or to get him to give up the puck so your team can get it. You cross-check a guy in front of the net to clear your crease so your goalie can see the puck, and won't give up a goal. Even a some of the reckless headshots are done to relieve a puck carrier of the puck and hopefully generate a transition play (they're not all predatory, even if they're suspendable).

To the extent those plays are done deliberately and for no other reason than to hurt the opponent, serving no hockey purpose, they're potentially suspendable too. If you're nowhere near the puck and cross-check an unsuspecting player in a way that could lead to injury, you deserve a call from the DOPS.

Here, pinning Pettersson to the boards serves a hockey purpose. You take him out of the play and allow the puck to get to your teammate so it can go the other way, and if you hold on a bit long (which might be interference or holding), that serves a hockey purpose too, because there's more open ice for your team's rush. But once that puck is heading up ice, there's no hockey purpose to putting your stick between the guy's legs and slamming him into the ice. There's a decent chance that a guy falling in that way could get hurt, and you've deliberately made him fall that way (in violent fashion). That's reckless and doesn't serve a hockey purpose.

That's why I don't think you can call it a hockey play. The first part of what Matheson did is a hockey play, for sure, but no one's complaining about the first part.