The Department of Player Safety has announced that Ottawa forward Mark Stone will sit for their next two games (Tomorrow in Montreal and Thursday at home against the Jets). Stone earns this sit down, as described in the video above, thanks to a hit he laid on Landon Ferraro on Saturday night.
While the DoPS suspension videos are always helpful to tell us what did happen and explain to us why things played out the way they did, there’s always something missing. We’re told that Ferraro was not injured (in fact he didn’t miss a shift), and know that plays in; I’d like to know how much. Would Stone have gotten three games if Ferraro were concussed? Four?
I would also very much like to know how this differs meaningfully from the shot that Sam Bennett laid on Kyle Quincey in Detroit’s game against Calgary, which had a similar head-pick style hit (which was admittedly more of a straight on hit), but also featured a hit on a player who at no point had control of the puck (added interference). Quincey has missed each of the Wings’ follow-up contests while undergoing concussion protocol after that hit, which received neither an in-game penalty nor a supplemental phone call.
Continuing to try to figure out the calculus of the DoPS decision-making process for discipline remains an exercise in frustration, even if I do agree with this decision.
