The NHL’s justice was swift. Â This morning they announced a four-game suspension for Bruins left wing Daniel Paille for his hit last night on Dallas Stars right wing Raymond Sawada. According to the statement the NHL released, this will result in a loss of $23,118.28 in pay for Paille. Â Blindsided by Paille, Sawada suffered a separated shoulder and broken nose in the Stars 6-3 loss to the Bruins and is expected to miss quite a few games.
The official Bruins Twitter account led off the game last night by reminding people about the bad blood between both teams:
Last night’s first fight began only one second into the game and three more fights followed, but Paille’s hit was the most egregious.  Or was it?  While last night the Internet was abuzz with people incriminating Paille, many today are placing equal blame on Sawada for having his head down when he shouldn’t have.  Either way, under the NFL’s new Rule 48, created to discourage head shots in the wake of David Booth and Marc Savard both suffering serious concussions last season:
48.6 Fines and Suspensions – Any player who incurs a total of two (2) game misconducts under this rule, in either regular League or playoff games, shall be suspended automatically for the next game his team plays. For each subsequent game misconduct penalty the automatic suspension shall be increased by one game. If deemed appropriate, supplementary discipline can be applied by the Commissioner at his discretion.
So the league needed to send the message that they are serious about enforcing this rule. Paille, generally considered a good guy and not a dirty player, whether intentional or not, got Sawada in both the shoulder and head and the suspension, while harsh, seems to be right in line with what a player should received under Rule 48.
Speaking after practice today, Paille maintained that it was a shoulder hit:
“It was a fast-paced play. I just recognized that Sawada was going on a breakaway, and I just went over to backcheck and get the puck, but he cut back to the middle. If you look the play, I’m ahead of him when I hit him, and I felt that I hit his shoulder at that moment. Looking at the replay I felt that he kind of turned towards me so I wouldn’t my check. I felt that I hit him in the the shoulder at first.”
Paille does understand that the league needs to send a message and while he isn’t happy about the number of games in the suspension he “accepts” it and hopes that Sawada is “all right”.