Jason Chimera of the Washington Capitals received a major charging penalty on Thursday night and earned himself a game misconduct as a result. But that's all the punishment there will be to speak of, he won't be feeling the wrath of Brendan Shanahan, according to the Washington Examiner's Brian McNally.
First off, here is the hit in question again on the Bruins' Adam McQuaid.
Here is more from McNally explaining why this hit isn't going to warrant a suspension for Chimera.
The mitigating factors here: McQuaid turned at the last second and put himself in a vulnerable position. Even his own coach, Claude Julien, said that to reporters in Boston after the game.
According to the league, Chimera tried to minimize contact. His skates cross the goal line sideways, an indication he'd already begun slowing down. Also, go down the list of suspensions for charging issued by the NHL's department of player safety and you'll see one common denominator -- the player left his feet and launched himself at his opponent. As ugly as the hit looked at full speed, that didn't happen in this case.
It's tough to argue with any of that. The hit definitely looked bad and could still prove bad for McQuaid, who left the game and then was not on the ice Friday morning for the Bruins' practice. Not to blame the victim -- OK, that is what I'm going to do a little -- but McQuaid put himself in harm's way.
On Friday, the questions turn to the health of McQuaid. The good news for the Bruins is that we aren't talking about a concussion.
Claude says Adam McQuaid wont make NY trip: "Eye is swollen shut from cut. He won't make the trip. There's no concussion but it's a bad cut"
-- Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) March 30, 2012
In the end, perhaps the punishment might have actually been a bit stiff for Chimera, having to sit out almost the entire game. But the Capitals won in a shootout regardless, so it didn't play out too badly for the team.
If anything, I suppose Chimera could have the game misconduct rescinded, but that doesn't do much other than take away points from Fantasy owners.
Turns out, Chimera avoided possible punishment elsewhere, too. Watch that video up above to the end and you'll see Chimera getting into a somewhat heated conversation with a fan with a lot of finger pointing and rough language. I can't read all that he's saying, but Chimera is pretty animated. Thankfully cooler heads did prevail and both Chimera and the fan went their separate ways.
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