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Video: Was Zenon Konopka judged too harshly for boarding?

The Ottawa Senators were leading the New York Rangers 1-0 this afternoon when play turned immediately thanks to Zenon Konopka.

Konopka was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct for boarding Artem Anisimov. Anisimov was down on the ice for a short time after the hit and in the wake of that, Konopka was taken from the penalty box off the ice and sent to the showers. On the major power play, the Rangers scored two goals to take a 2-1 lead.

Have a look at the video and judge for yourself:

Boarding? Yes, absolutely. Boarding doesn’t have to be from behind to be a penalty. Konopka hit Anisimov into the glass and that’s a big no-no. A bit of acting on Anisimov’s part? Perhaps. Anisimov missed just two minutes of action and worked two shifts during the major power play.

Considering the hit, Konopka got more than his just desserts for the play and he’ll likely have a meeting with Brendan Shanahan. It’s a dumb hit, but one to get you tossed from the game? Questionable.

Our wonder here is: What happened to the quiet room?

It seemed clear that Anisimov was slowed up thanks to a shot that smacked his face into the glass and that he was shaken up a bit by it. If he’s hurt at all by a hit in the head, why isn’t he getting a time out from the team doctors? On first glance, that looks highly dubious one way or another. Either he’s hurt and the Rangers are not playing by the protocol, or he wasn’t hurt at all and milked a hit to get a sweet call from the officials.

Asking for ethics in hockey is asking a bit much, we know, but there’s a lot to digest on just one play and a lot of questions in need of answering.