Nashville Predators captain Shea Weber received a meager fine Thursday for an unsuccessful sucker punch and grabbing Henrik Zetterberg's head and throwing it into the boards. Given all the concerns with head injuries in sports today, he probably should have been punished more severely, but alas, he was not.
Thankfully, Zetterberg was not hurt, despite his helmet being cracked, and he will be fine for Game 2 on Friday night. Zetterberg won't speak to whether or not Weber should have been suspended, but he made it abundantly clear that what Weber did was bush-league:
"I thought it was dirty,'' Zetterberg said. "I think it was directed toward my head and if you look at what’s happened over the last few years with all of the head injuries I think that should not belong in the game." [...]
When he saw it on tape Weber grabbing the back of head and driving it into the glass, Zetterberg said, "I thought it looked bad, but I guess it wasn’t bad enough."
Former Red Wing and now NHL Senior Vice President of Player Safety Brendan Shanahan suggested that Zetterberg's health was a factor in deciding whether or not to come down with a stiffer penalty.
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