NHL Player Safety issues ruling on Jamie Benn’s sucker punch, leaves fans outraged!

The Dallas Stars couldn’t punch their way to the Western Conference final in Game 5 against the Winnipeg Jets in their second round series on Thursday night, but captain Jamie Benn surely punched someone.

Benn received a 10-minute misconduct in the third period of Game 5 after he sucker punched Jets forward Mark Scheifele in the face.

The incident started Benn and Scheifele started tussling along the boards. Benn pulled Scheifele down and Winnipeg’s Brandon Tanev grabbed Benn from behind, adding to the scrum.

Scheifele wanted to get back up, and as he did, held by linesman Ryan Daisy, Benn delivered a punch to Scheifele’s jaw, knocking over both the Jets player and the on-ice official. Scheifele tried to get back at Benn but was kept away.

In a surprising turn on events, the Jets are the ones that were left short-handed with Benn received a roughing minor and a misconduct, as did Tanev. Scheifele received two minutes for roughing.

On Friday morning, the NHL’s Department of Player Safety issued a ruling on Benn, fining him $5,000, the maximum allowable under the CBA, for roughing Scheifele on Thursday.

Several fans called out the NHL for the verdict on Benn, with one claiming the league missed a chance to suspend a repeat offender:

“Player safety doesn’t have the balls to suspend a guy who has been suspended multiple times and clearly has no regard for other players’ safety. This wing of the NHL is pathetic.” wrote one fan.
“Wow! That’s the amount of money he earns in five hours! That’ll teach him!” joked another.
“NHL Player Safety is an oxymoron,” darted another.

The Jets blanked the Stars 4-0 to stay alive in the second-round series. The Stars still lead the series 3-2 and can wrap it up in Dallas on Saturday.