Understandbly, seeing Montreal's Max Pacioretty lying motionless out cold on the ice with Boston's menacing 6'9'' tall Zdeno Chara the culprit responsible does not look good. However there are a few things one must take into account before any judgments are made.
To begin with, Chara has only been suspended once in his 13 year career, and it was for an instigator penalty with Ottawa. Since his trade to Boston, the biggest knock from Bruins fans have been that he does not utilize his size, and doesn't throw his body around enough. Chara has logged only 82 penalty minutes on the season, including just 1 fighting major. Chara is not an aggressor in any sense of the word, and is definitely not a dirty or cheap player.
We see this play happen all the time in the NHL. Every player is aware of the dangers associated with that part of the ice and the glass, and plenty of times players will get nudged into it. More often than not it's during a line change, or a scrum for the puck, but in this case it so happened to be with two players going full speed.
So was there intent? Yes and no. Did Chara intend to nudge Pacioretty into the boards? Yes. Was the hit late and could be called for inteference? Probably. However I really cannot say that knowing Chara's history and seeing the hit live and then in countless replays that Zdeno Chara did not have intent to injur.
Now the big question will be whether or not Chara gets suspended and for how long. I believe he will probably get suspended for a few games. Anything more than 3 would be pushing it, and I can't possibly see 5 games or more happening. However if the league imposes a 1-3 game suspension to force players to let up in unecessary hits, then I could live with it.
