Straight to the nitty gritty:

Here are the facts:

Max Pacioretty's hit on Kris Letang was made from what is considered to be the blindside.

It was made on an unsuspecting Letang, who was cruising through the slot with a scoring opportunity on his stick. Naturally, it's Letang's responsibility to protect himself against the dangers of being in that area.

Pacioretty's shoulder makes direct contact with Letang's head, breaking his nose on the follow through.

The hit is not late.

Nor does Letang make any sudden movement to make himself more vulnerable.

It's Pacioretty's responsibility to relent on his hit, to ensure he isn't delivering a direct head-shot with intent.

Pacioretty did not, however, take an extended run at Letang.

There was no bad blood between the two, no prior incidents between them, no incidents within the game between other players that made this some type of vengeance situation.


Here are the other factors to consider:

-Pacioretty's history--as a victim and as a clean player, his character and his reaction after throwing this hit are points of evidence that he did not intend to deliver a head-shot.

-Letang's return to the game after only missing two shifts minimized the severity of it. Even if people don't like that this is a factor, it has been considered in all previous decisions this year.

Results, in my view:

It seems clear that Pacioretty's only intent on the play is to separate his man from the puck, in an area of the ice where an unchecked player poses a major scoring threat.

Like in all of these hearings, Pacioretty will have the opportunity to explain exactly that.

His apology to Letang--on the ice-- in the name of respect and genuine empathy, was further than most players go under these circumstances.

Usually, the first thing out of a perpetrator's mouth in these instances is "I didn't do it". Max's apology was an admission of guilt.

You can be guaranteed no one feels worse about than him. It was clear as he sat on the bench right after the hit, shaking his head for moments. He was rattled by the whole incident.

In the end, this is the kind of incident that can no longer go unpunished in this league.

Some have compared it to Malone on Campoli in the pre-season, but it resembles Richards on Booth, or Cooke on Savard, without the intent and without the insanely bad result of the impact .

I'd imagine this hit will receive a one, or two-game suspension. It's still possible Pacioretty will escape with less, but highly unlikely.

And to know Pacioretty, is to know that he'll graciously accept whatever Sheriff Shanahan hands down as a punishment, and he will continue to play the game as respectfully as he always has.

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