Rumor: NHL Player Safety has ruled on the Matthews-Dillon hit.

The Toronto Maple Leafs faithful are not going to be happy about this one.

On Friday the Toronto Maple Leafs faced off against the San Jose Sharks and it was a bigger than normal game for both sides. The game of course represented those all-important 2 points as does every other game in the regular season, but this one also featured the return of San Jose Sharks veteran Patrick Marleau for the first time since he left the Maple Leafs organization this past summer. The stakes were extra high for both sides but it was a hit that would eventually take center stage, especially for fans of the Maple Leafs.

During the course of the game toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews was driving the puck into the San Jose Sharks zone when he was suddenly leveled by a big time hit from San Jose Sharks defenseman Brendan Dillon. There was no doubt it was a big collision and it would not be long before Matthews was forced to leave the bench as a result of the NHL's concussion spotters opting to send him back to the locker room for the league's concussion protocol. Now that would have seemingly indicated that the spotters felt the hit was delivered to the head of Matthews, but we may never know what it was that the spotters saw in that moment. What we did learn for certain though was that Matthews avoided the worst case scenario as he returned to the game at the start of the third period, indicating of course that he was not concussed.

Although the spotters may have believed the hit to have been high on Matthews, it appears as though the National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety does not agree. According to a breaking news report from Sportsnet NHL insider Chris Johnston, it now seems as though the league will not be disciplining Dillon for the hit to the Maple Leafs star forward.

"Brenden Dillon won't face any supplemental discipline stemming from this hit on Auston Matthews," wrote Johnston on Saturday. "Feeling is the head was not the main point of contact."

No doubt this will rub some fans the wrong way, especially considering that Matthews was required to enter the concussion protocol following the hit itself.