With most plays that warrant a suspension, players are often in motion and hitting a guy who is carrying the puck and could be argued there was a hockey play and split-second decisions involved.
In Mangiapane's case, the other player was flat on his belly facing away from Mangiapane, had no prior interaction with Mangiapane in the 5-10 seconds before the hit and there wasn't any kind of hockey play to be made with that hit.
Mangiapane had plenty of time to decide what to do, and still chose to go for it. To me, it doesn't matter if the player was injured or not, because Mangiapane can't know what injury could result. Since it was a downward hit, there was also gravity on his side and thus his full body weight potentially into the unprotected neck ahead.
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