Garnet Hathaway won’t be suspended for his match penalty

Calgary Flames forward Garnet Hathaway was levied a match penalty for a second period hit on Minnesota’s Luke Kunin on Saturday night. The league has confirmed that Hathaway won’t face a hearing for the incident.

No hearing for Hathaway means no supplemental discipline related to the event – under the CBA, players need to have their proverbial “day in court” before they face a suspension or fine.

Kunin briefly went to the locker room area, but returned and finished the game. The two general guidelines that the Department of Player Safety follows is whether a player was injured on the play and whether the player inflicting the injury has a history of predatory play. Given that Kunin wasn’t hurt and Hathaway hasn’t faced discipline in his NHL career, a lack of additional discipline isn’t shocking.

Smashing Kunin’s face into the dasher was definitely reckless. But Hathaway missed two-thirds of the game as a result, so typically in these situations Player Safety considers the matter handled.