It seemed like the official was thrown by the severity of Pav's injury. A majority of people seem to think the cross check didn't warrant 5 minutes because it wasn't anything crazy, like to the head/face/neck . Normally it seems the cross checks are judge and penalized based on the striking location.
On the other hand, high sticking seems to be judged by the severity of the results to some degree. While not an official rule (to my knowledge) if there is blood it's 4 minutes.
Steve Bernie got 5 minutes in 2012 (and I think tossed) for hitting Rob Scuderi and maybe that was fine; but same game Stephen Gionta got boarded just before that and it wasn't even a call.
The Refs have a tough job but there is sometimes some real inconsistencies. While I was glad to see the Sharks win, a 5 minute major seemed rather excessive.
- Queenie_5_hole
The reason that the blood on a high stick gets you 4 is because of the following clause:
When a player carries or holds any part of his stick above the shoulders of the opponent so that injury results, the Referee shall assess a double-minor penalty for all contact that causes an injury, whether accidental or careless, in the opinion of the Referee.
They associate "blood" with "injury" although I think that's a bit of a leap, personally.
I also agree that they made the call based solely on the intent. Neither referee was signalling for a penalty, and this severity of cross check goes uncalled 10+ times every game, it wasn't to the head, and just ended unfortunately.
That said, kill off the damn penalty.
